One Year Anniversary

Today is an anni-

versary for me. It's not a pleasant one to remember. It was one year ago today that I was told by my former pastor not to "chase after" and "embarrass" people who walk away from Holy Communion without consuming the Host. I quit on the spot. Usually you don't quit after 37 years all in a shock to the system like that. But I had to do it. Needless to say, the diocesan non-response of just shining it on without an apology is despicable to me. I never thought much of our bishop to begin with, but his non-response/handling is about as bad as the original offense as it condones what the pastor did.

Thankfully, I had already been going to St. Anne's parish in San Diego for frequent daily Mass, it having been close to my work. If not for Fr. Sean Finnegan's visit in the summer of 2008, I'd have been unaware of that new parish being given over to the TLM.

I still go to see the Sainted Fr. S. at his home to assist at his Sunday Mass. [He is not able to drive any longer, due to an eye problem.] But I also frequently make a morning Sunday Mass at St. Anne's, as well as get there for daily Mass when I can.

The TLM still has a few drawbacks for me. I'm no "silent" canon fan. But at least I know that the priest is going to say and do exactly what the Mass calls for. The priest isn't going to ad lib. And for sure he'd like as not personally put someone in a headlock who tried to waltz away with Holy Communion without consuming it. That's probably what I like best about the Latin Mass. Fr. Gismondi [aka "The Amazing Fr. G." on this blog] would follow through on St Tarcisius's example. Sadly, today, some priests would consider him a "meanspirited" naive rube.

Today Fr. Gismondi had a votive Mass for Vocations. Most appropriate. We need more good priests. And also prayers for priests who seem to have lost their way.

Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother

I always try to go to mass on Sept. 8th to honor the Blessed Mother. I don't always get to go, but this year I did. I especially liked all the red roses in the Sanctuary.

Today also has a touch of poignancy for me too. It marks the 9th anniversary of my dad's death.

RIP, I'm glad he died on a day where we celebrate our heavenly mother's birthday. I feel reassured that she was close to him and had him under her special protection when he died.

I think my dad would have liked the young priest who said the mass today a lot. Fr. Gordon is particularly a little gung ho when he invokes the prayer to St. Michael, the Archangel. Fr. Gordon was ex-military, and so was my dad.

One nice thing to mention about my dad today was how much I appreciated how generous he was to all my friends, without fail. Dad always said things like "X is welcome to come along." He always took time to chat a bit with them.

The Blessed Mother was especially good to me too, today. Let's just say I had to go down to a government office and the outcome couldn't have been better. She gave me an early birthday present on her birthday.

St. Anne's Rectory Now a Canonical House

Meant to post this much sooner. Earlier this year, Fr. Berg, the Superior General of the FSSP was out, with permission of the local Ordinary to perform Confirmations using the older Tridentine ritual. At that time he'd asked for permission to establish a canonical house for the order.

Permission was granted Mid-August. This is huge. What it means is that the FSSP is now permanently established in San Diego, and a future bishop can not tell the FSSP to "take a hike." In other words, the FSSP will always have a permanent home in San Diego. The rectory will now be called St. Joachim House.

The parish is coming together nicely. It had been a disused parish (having consolidated with a neighboring one in 2006.) In the fall of 2008 St. Anne's was given over to the care of the FSSP under the direction of Fr. Gismondi. Early last spring, a nearby house was up for sale and the parish was able to come up with enough money for a downpayment for the property, and has over the course of a year been doing repairs. Mid October it will finally be finished to where the parish offices can be moved there, as well as have additional classroom space for catechism, meetings, etc.

[St. Joachim is the name traditionally given as the husband of St. Anne, so that's why the rectory is now named after him.]

First Solemn High Mass - Fr. Rhone Lillard

Fr. Lillard was ordained in Lincoln, Nebraska last Saturday. Today in San Diego, at St. Anne's Parish (which exclusively does the EF form of Mass) Father Celebrated his first high Mass. I culled some of the clearest shots of the Mass and reception which followed. [Earlier in the week Father also said some of the low Masses. Towards the end of the slide show, Fr. is pictured with his mother, Jackie Lillard, who is a member of our parish.

Congratulations to Fr. Lillard and his friends and family and the prayerful support of the parish. I have yet to meet a priest belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter who doesn't show extreme zeal and love of God and his people.
Fr. Gordon, was the deacon, and Fr. Gordon is celebrating his 2nd anniversary to the priesthood. The pastor, Fr. Gismondi, acted as subdeacon, and is shown at the end of the slideshow receiving a "first blessing" from Fr. Lillard. The pastor was formerly a chemical engineer, ordained for a bit less than 10 years, and the associate, Fr. Gordon, served in the US Coast guard, and was also has a degree in engineering from the CG Academy. God is loving His engineers!

The society is filled with men with true joy of the priesthood, and I expect Fr. Lillard will be no exception.

If any of you saw the dedication of the new Chapel for the FSSP seminary in Nebraska earlier this spring, Fr. Lillard had acted as the Master of Ceremonies. I gather the society is looking for a few good men! As Fr. Gismondi had said in a sermon "well, I thought I had plans to be a chemical engineer, but....God thought otherwise!"

Nice Thought on Mary's preparation for Jesus

The Amazing Fr. G. had a rather nice 1st Sunday of Advent sermon at the high Mass this morning. He covered standard caution of Advent being a penitential season, and it was important not to follow the commerical lead of following Christmas too soon, out of its proper season.

He mentioned that while in Lent we concentrate on turning away from sin, in Advent we concentrate on little sacrifices to turn us to God. He mentioned to remember that the Blessed mother was at this time, in her last month of pregnancy and reminded people (if they didn't already know!) of the discomforts most mothers-to-be have at that time. But he was saying how Mary offered up this temporary suffering in the joy of the knowledge that she would bear the Saviour of the World. [I guess she must have handled Baby Jesus standing on her bladder really well!)

He also mentioned in the announcements that the Church is to have, on Dec 12th (Our Lady of Guadalupe day) a Rorate Mass -- apparently hithertofore not much done in San Diego -- which given the long standing until recent Latin Mass society, came as a surprise to me.

More about Rorate Masses on my other blog when it gets closer to the time. Mass will be celebrated starting at 5:30 a.m. -- which I plan to attend, unless I am totally dead to the world.

It Makes for an interesting Mass

I haven't seen too many Masses of the Dead in the EF form yet. But the delightful Fr. Freddy did one this AM, it was a feria with "nothing on" and it had been requested in memory of a parishioners relative. It's pretty cool to hear a "DIES IRAE" in real life, other than a University classroom.

I can't vividly remember going to one of these when I was little grades 1-2, other than I do have a vague memory of one. An All Soul's day Mass, perhaps? I'm sure there must have been the odd school Mass or two when we were present at someone's funeral if the Mass time coincided with the school Mass time (as it sometimes did.)

I think if a person has ever been to a funeral service for someone they didn't know, you can almost count on that person being Catholic. I can remember in the mid 60s, after the Mass went to mostly English, but with the old form largely retained, before the 69 missal, we went to quite a few funeral Masses. From middle of 3rd grade through 7th, I'd attended two different schools, and we'd normally all go at least once or twice a week to Mass as a matter of routine. Both churches were cavernous -- so the family of the deceased was usually no where near where we sat, even with the whole school going.....which was just as well, given the propensity for the younger kids to stiffle not tears over the casket scene before us, but generally over "Drama queen" soloists. I can well remember a classmate or two being taken to task for getting the giggles. No, it was never me. I'd already been too scared to even so much as turn around during Mass, because our primary school nuns grades 1-3 would have killed us. That sort of nun can help you develop Vicky Lawrence type immunity from breaking out a laugh. Or as George Carlin would say "if you were good, you could whip a face on Rodger, and HE'D get in trouble for laugning, but NOT you. 'Rodger, outside, there's nothing funny here.' IF you were GOOD, you could clear the whole room."

Many of my protestant friends, when Iwas growing up thought it must have been gloomy for us to have to attend these masses. Far from it!! These usually took longer, so we enjoyed the extra time out of the classroom!

[In grade school, 4-5 in Roanoke, Virginia, I had a friend, Teri Jo Myers, who was a genius at getting a nosebleed, which conveniently lasted from the gospel reading to just before the consecration. Guess who would get to go with her to make sure she was okay and didn't pass out? A few years back one of our servers was telling us that in grammar school they LOVED to serve Mass for Fr. Tom P. because "he always told us we didn't have to be in any rush to hurry back to class." I daresay as a boy in Ireland he had a clandestine few extra minutes of bliss away from the nuns with the priest's permission.

What goes around, comes around!

Forget Missal? No problem! New way to follow Latin Propers

Well, DUH. I was in a hurry this morning and forgot to stash my missal in my computer case as per usual. It was "Ember Friday" today, so that's why the purple. I knew I could borrow a Latin/English Sunday Mass common missal to follow the ordinary of the Mass, but I would have been dissapointed not to be able to follow the propers.



But hey, no worries. The Amazing Fr. G. didn't notice I'd found a newfangled way to read those ancient proper., even though he sailed by me after he'd heard confession to go vest for Mass.







So if you're ever stuck or want a reference, you can download the whole thing, here.

Spot the Error in Today's Mass

....you don't even need to be conversant with the EF form of the Mass, particularly.

....win a kewpie doll.

[Hint: Aug 25 is the Feast of St. Louis]

Benediction 08-22-09

I don't know why more people don't go to Benediction. The sound isn't the hotest, but this little ceremony gives such a feeling of peace.

Assumption - and Change can be Good!

Here is about a 10 minute clip of this morning's Mass for the Assumption at St. Anne's Church, San Diego. St. Anne's is a personal parish which is solely dedicated to offering the Mass in the Extraordinary Form.



The video covers from the incensation just before the Lavabo (washing of the hands) to just before the "Nobis quoque peccatoribus..." in the canon. If you're new to the EF I highly recommend sitting in the same approximate seat I was, because you can see the priest's motions quite well with his blessings over the chalice etc. I have no idea how the people way the heck at the back left are in more than "ballpark." It was a missa Cantata. Half way between a low Mass and a High Mass. No subdeacon or deacon. But singing, and a fairly full completement of servers, incense and singing. The have a very good choir, it was nice to hear O Sanctissima towards the end of Mass.

I did notice one thing in particular, the Propers for the Mass, i.e. changeable parts, were completely different from the 1920s & 1940s to the ones given in the '62 Missal. For instance, the gospel reading in the 1920s was the story of Martha and Mary, and today's Mass had the gospel reading for the Visitation. [Every other proper, save the preface, was different too.] So sometimes these tweaks were for the better.

And WHAT IS WITH THE US Bishops saying today was NOT a Holy Day of Obligation? Either these bozos are serious about holy days, or they're not. Which is it? Then they act surprised when people don't show up for Holy Days. Is it any wonder people don't show up if the bishops take the attitude "oh, deary me, we'd be expecting them to show up for Mass two whole days in a ROW." It was my understanding that they would NOT muck around with Dec. 8th and Aug. 15th. Sucks to them.

The "Amazing Fr. G." [aka Fr. Carl Gismondi], also gave a very nice sermon, saying that the Assumption was the completion of her Conception. From her first moment of existence she was saved in a special way by God from the stain of sin, and her body did not become corrupt in death. She challenges us to keep to our own baptismal purity from stain of sin.

When they called a Spade A Mohammedan!

Meant to post this a few days ago. Readers of my blog know that I've taken to attending the EF form of the Mass on weekdays. It is a) quick b) Latin is fun c) close to work. Over the years, I've aquired a number of handmissals because a) I like history, and seeing how such things as the church calendar changed b) I like Missals c) they often contain lots of bits of interesting information.

Sometimes, it's fun to see how much less PC we were years ago.

Two of the Missals I have are "The New Marian Missal", published mid-1950s, and the 1962 Latin Missal which was recently published by Baronius press that relied heavily on the aforementioned Missal. I also just recently acquired a quite nice leatherbound "New..St. Joseph's Daily Missal and Hymnal" published in 1967, when the Mass was more a less fairly similar to the Mass of 62, with the big change being English, rather than Latin. In other words, most of the prayers were there just as before, save the Judica Me. [The offertory and the canon of which, they SHOULD have kept without "alternate prayer, IMO!]

But here's the fun thing: A lot of these missals have helpful tidbits of information. So before the Mass given they will tell you background information about a Saint re: his feast day, etc. Here is the '62 and '50s Missal introduction to July 31st - the feast day of Ignacious Loyola:

"Ignatius, courtier and knight, was wounded at the siege of Pampeluna ['62 say "Pampelona".] During his long convalesence, the reading of the lives of the saints, revealed to him that the church militant needed an army of glorius in her fight with the forces of Satan: pagan, Mohammedans, Protestants, Jansenists, etc. He founded the Society of Jesus and as first General of the new spiritual chivalry he moved to the attack under the motto: "Ad majorem Dei Gloriam.: - "To the greater glory of God." He died with the Holy Name of Jesus on his lips, A.D. 1556."

How much tamer the '67 St. Joseph's missal is. For the same date:

"St. Ignatius, born in 1491 at the regal castle of Loyola, Spain, became a famous courtier and knight in the court of Ferdinand V. Woulded in the siege of Pampeluna, he retired to Manresa to lead a life of prayer and contemplation. After being ordained a priest, he founded the Society of Jesus to fight the forces of Satan."

H'mmmm....

Also, I find out little historical bits re: the calendar changes. One of the missals I have is from the 1920s. I've been puzzled now, for some time, why the 1920s 99.99% all latin Missal did not have a Mass for "The Immaculate Heart of Mary" which is frequently said at St. Anne's. While the new Baronius press Missal I have is quite good for giving ALL the Latin, I'd dearly love to strangle the editors for having Masses that are "too flippy"(that and too many "instructions and explainations in the Mass text -- put those in a separate section, dummies.) "Too flippy means I have to mark just the propers in more than 3 places. Dudes! I don't have enough ribbons for that, and that much flipping is a pain...so, being familiar enough with the Ordinary of the Mass now -- a lot of times I will use just this old 20s missal -- if I've had time to go over the propers before hand so I don't have to do all the flipping. (And the extra commems. are right in there too!) It works quite well as this little hand missal will at most (save the preface) have but two places I have to mark for the propers. THEY seemed to have a clue that some things can be too darn "flippy." But the frustration was in not having that one Immaculate Heart of Mary Mass. Couldn't for the life of me figure out why....UNTIL only this past Saturday.

It had long been staring me in the face that the 20s missal, in the few English pages referred to the "New" Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It had been around since the 1800s, but had only been made "Universal" to the Church not all that long before. That Mass was celebrated as the Octave day to Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi was always on a Thursday, and this Sacred Heart Mass for Jesus was celebrated 8 days later, i.e. the 2nd Friday after Corpus Christi. The Amazing Fr. G. of St. Anne's parish, San Diego, has always announced this Mass -- just before the Mass is said on a Saturday Mass for the BVM. Not, without a little internal groaning, because everyone who attends the Saturday Mass knows it's a "flippy Mass" and scrambles. I'd wondered why this Mass was for "Aug. 22." And suddenly a lightbulb went on. Instead of pouting that there was no complete Mass in the '20s Missal, it occurred to me to look and see what it said for August 22. Sure enough: it didn't have a Mass per se, BUT ding-ding-ding-we-have-a-winner. What it said was "die 22 Augusti - In Octava (Hey!!!!) Assumptionis B. Marie Vir. etc.(and then it had some commems." SOOOOOOOO.... This "new Mass" was in response to Our Lady of Fatima requesting a Mass to her Sacred Heart. And in the early 20s the visionaries were still being examined, etc. So this Mass was something that came about as a universal Votive Mass much later!

I still want to ring the necks of the Baronius press people though. Dudes, if you gotta go to more than 3 places, have the propers for the Mass (save preface) in two places, at most. ESPECIALLY if it's a Mass said frequently, like this one is. You can afford a tissue paper thin page or two extra!

Missa Cum Foghorn

I think it threw the young associate off a bit this morning. Usually during the "silent" canon, we get barking dogs, or the sound of dump trucks picking up trash, or lawn mowers, and in the evening, sometimes the jingle jangle jingle of not spurs riding merrily along - but an ice cream vendor.

But this morning was *special*. Amazing how sound carries from the bay! I don't know WHAT was moving in or out of the harbor (I don't think it was fog, as it was pretty clear, but overcast) -- but whatever it was, it was BIIIIIGGGGG as in tanker or something!

Gem 'splains how to do Centering Prayer the Right Way

See how easy it is to do it the right way?

Contrast to "the wrong way" below.

BTW, was delighted this morning at Mass to find that the EF form of the Mass gave St. Christopher his snaps on the comems. during the mass said in honor of St. James, the Greater. 40 years at least, since I heard that one!

If you've ever attended the Funeral of someone you didn't know...

chances are good to excellent you're Catholic.

Some of us stayed around right after the normal Sat. 9.00 a.m. Mass at St. Anne's. Maybe it comes from going to Catholic school. In the schools I attended for grammar school we routinely attended the funeral Masses if one happened to be scheduled for the same time we would normally go to Mass. [We went to Mass once or twice a week, depending on the school I was in.]

Just me? Or was this routine for you too?

Cheap Giggle With Latin

Early this morning, as is my wont before attending a UA / TLM /Extraordinary / Whatever-you-want-to-call-it Mass, I checked the propers for the day. I'm having fun brushing up my Latin, so I try to read and follow along as much as I can in that language. When I flipped open the propers for the vigil of the Birth of John the Baptist (I was reading the little Latin only missal I have to see how much I could get on my own first without "cheating") my eye fell on the latin (and English!) word "vulva."

"Well, this should be fun today" I thought. The word was in the epistle which was from Jeremias 1: 1-10.

The St. Jerome's Latin version didn't mince words: "In diebus illis: Factum est verbum Domini ad me, dicens: Priusquam te formarem in utero, novi te: et antequam exires de vulva, sanctificavi te, et prophetam in gentibus dedite."

The English given for that same passage: "In those days the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Before I formed thee in the bowels[! not exactly accurate, is it?] of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb [true enough, but that's not EXACTLY what it said!] I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations."

I guess they didn't want Victorian [and later!] folks fainting had an "exact" translation been given! Hand missals frequently didn't have all the Latin. Who said it didn't pay to study the classics?

Nice to Celebrate Ascension on the Ascension

Last night I went to the first High Mass I went to since I was very young. I have to say that back in the day, a lot of families, mine included, only went to the high Mass if we overslept. So I came in with vague memories. Last night's Mass was well attended, and once again the Little Oratory assisted with the singing to bolster the normal St. Anne's choir. The priest was a visiting missionary from New Zealand, now stationed in Nigeria in Ibo country. He was quite young, according to him "recently ordained."

I happen to love incense, so I was delighted there was enough to choke a heretic with. Full complement of servers, and I have a good guess as to why when His Hermeneuticalness was at a few high Masses with muckety mucks that he was a 2nd subdeacon. The first one stand in line with the humeral veil and hold the paten (I think in the misty dark ages, someone must have ticked off the head man or whatever, and he said "YOU, THIS Sunday you're going to stand behind the deacon in a thoroughly fatiguing way, we'll come up with some allegorical reason later, but YOU, you're being punished!!!" ) Then the 2nd subdeacon is there to complete the picture of getting to hold up the left side of the chasuble. And be someone else to manoever around. Two torchbearers but I don't know how many physical torches there are to be carried.

I didn't time when it started but it was to start at 7 - it did end at 8:25. Assuming they may have been at most 5 minutes late, then it really didn't take much more than 15 minutes longer than the average Sunday Mass does today. [The Epistle and the Gospel were re-read in English, too.]

The vestments were particularly sumptuous, nice to see them on someone's back rather than a museum, and there were a veil and burse to match. Click on the picture with the isolated chasubles to see more detail.

Around the Mulberry Bush with Mary

Sorta. I am beginning to appreciate that my own generation was not the only "jacked around one." I went down today to St. Anne's. Nice Holy Hour, Benediction, Mass, and Rosary and prayers for the 1st Saturday. Bits from 1920, bits from 1942, bits from '62, and a bit for the Feria of the day (St. Athanasius.)

The ordo on line wouldn't have helped, particularly. I think whomever jacked around with this stuff must have had shares in the printing companies that had the rights to publish at the time. Cynical? Moi? :-D

I didn't know the Immaculate Heart of Mary Mass was only made a universal in '42. Whatever. :-D It wasn't *quite* what it was (I think!) in 1920. I had it all marked out to follow the "Missae de sancta Maria in Sabbato" in "Tempore Paschali" Which wasn't quite right. (The Latin book I have is from the 20s. Close, but no cigar.]

I quickly grabbed the 1948 Mass which did have a Mass for the Immaculate Heart of Mary -- which irritatingly doesn't have the Epistle or Gospel in Latin. But I knew the Gospel was same in '62 as in the 20s. I'm not so sure about the Epistle though!

But I don't feel too bad. I'm pretty sure Father started to say the Gradual instead of the Greater Alleluia. He caught it and corrected. Unless going to the EF is giving me auditory hallucinations. Whatever. I didn't ask afterwards. Father had bigtime box office business in the confessional after Mass. Must be a good confessor. [No, I don't know. I usually go to complete strangers for confession! Easier for me to dump that way.]

[Uh, Fr. Gismondi, if you run across this, could you, like, maybe, when you put the bulletin together, just note the Epistle and Gospel readings to be done in the bulletin, as an extra clue? I knew it was going to be for the BVM today, but not the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Commems. didn't throw me. TLM pulls that often enough for even me to get that.]