Catholic Conference Mass faces Ad Orientum!

[snow_white]

I almost burst with joy today at Mass for the National Catholic Family Conference that took place in Anaheim, CA today. Fr. Fessio announced in his homily that he would be facing East for the Eucharistic Prayers. Indeed he did, to our delight! There were over 5000 people at this mass, which probably made it the largest Novus Ordo mass facing East since Vatican II!! I find this event to be a big step towards the mass truly intended by Vatican II. God bless Fr Fessio for making such a courageous step!!

 

[harveyc]

snow_white:

I almost burst with joy today at Mass for the National Catholic Family Conference that took place in Anaheim, CA today. Fr. Fessio announced in his homily that he would be facing East for the Eucharistic Prayers. Indeed he did, to our delight! There were over 5000 people at this mass, which probably made it the largest Novus Ordo mass facing East since Vatican II!! I find this event to be a big step towards the mass truly intended by Vatican II. God bless Fr Fessio for making such a courageous step!!

I was there also and it was obvious everyone was joyous. It’s unfortunate that I’ll also remember the Mass partially for the fact that Fr. Fessio accidentally included Pope John Paul II’s name in the Eucharistic Prayer instead of his good friend Pope Benedict the XVI. Also, would have been nice for our program to have included the Credo in Latin. Still, it was a wonderful Mass and I hope reverence becomes a norm throughout the U.S.!

 

[harveyc]

One more thing I’m curious about: we didn’t do the sign of peace during Mass and Fr. Fessio hadn’t discussed it. Was that intentional or not? If intentional, I assume it was to maintain an environment of reverence. I don’t particularly feel strongly one way of the other on it and would appreciate others’ thoughts on this.

 

[mercygate]

harveyc:

One more thing I’m curious about: we didn’t do the sign of peace during Mass and Fr. Fessio hadn’t discussed it. Was that intentional or not? If intentional, I assume it was to maintain an environment of reverence. I don’t particularly feel strongly one way of the other on it and would appreciate others’ thoughts on this.

Sharing the sign of peace is optional. Read the rubrics. It’s right in there. I don’t have it here but it says something like, “The priest may say: Let us share with one another a sign of peace.”

 

[turboEDvo]

Quite possibly the best Mass I have ever sat through. The conference was absolutely great. I so wish I had gone before. I’ll pop back in later, gotta go to work.

Eamon

 

[harveyc]

mercygate:

Sharing the sign of peace is optional. Read the rubrics. It’s right in there. I don’t have it here but it says something like, “The priest may say: Let us share with one another a sign of peace.”

Fine, I didn’t question whether it was legitimate or not though. Since Fr. Fessio accidentally included the name of Pope John Paul II in the Eucharistic Prayer, this may have been an accident as well, as far as I know. If it was intentional to exclude it, I wondered if Fr. Fessio had a specific purpose in mind. He went to great lengths to explain the direction of prayer and would have thought he would have explained this as well since he was being instructional. I haven’t read Spirit of the Liturgy yet, so maybe it’s something that was mentioned by Cardinal Ratazinger that could help explain it.

 

[Fashina86]

My uncle used to say Masses like that all the way through his death… even after the 2nd Vatican Council.

 

[snow_white]

harveryc, Didn’t Father sing the creed in latin? I distinctly remember this because we couldn’t sing along because our songbook didn’t have it!
I thought that was one of the most solid masses I have ever been to! The music was beautiful, the reverence was amazing, and it was so orthodox! I also thought it was good that he excluded the sign of peace, that part of mass flows better. And one really cool thing about it is that it was in the LA Archdiocese! Take that Mahoney

 

[harveyc]

snow_white:

harveryc, Didn’t Father sing the creed in latin? I distinctly remember this because we couldn’t sing along because our songbook didn’t have it!
I thought that was one of the most solid masses I have ever been to! The music was beautiful, the reverence was amazing, and it was so orthodox! I also thought it was good that he excluded the sign of peace, that part of mass flows better. And one really cool thing about it is that it was in the LA Archdiocese! Take that Mahoney

Yes, you’re correct. I wished we had the Credo in Latin so we could follow along, though I know VERY little Latin. I plan to work on that though. (I checked around and two vendors at the conference suggested getting Let’s Read Latin published by Dumb Ox Books and available on Amazon; I’ll also be getting the Handbook of Prayers by Scepter Press.)

I think I preferred the sign of peace to be omitted, although I’d like to know more about the history of it. I tend to think that the sign of peace is partially responsible (along with poor leadership) for all the hand-holding during the Our Father that is so common today (though being worked on in our diocese). I’ve gone to Mass in Italy and Portugal and never saw the sign of peace in use there so I would guess this is an invention of the U.S. bishops.

I thought Anaheim was in the Diocese of Orange but, now that you mentioned it, I checked and see that you are correct. I can’t recall if it was Scott Hahn or someone else that made reference to the leadership in the diocese and I assumed he was speaking of Bishop Todd Brown. I can’t even remember what he said now, though it was something vague.

Fr. Fessio mentioned Cardinal Ratzinger’s Spirit of the Liturgy which I had considered buy before, but I’ve just got too many unread books as it is right now. I checked with the Ignatius Press booth to see if they had any plans to put it on audio CDs, but they didn’t know of any such plans. I commute quite a bit and would have already listened to this twice if it was available in that format.

 

[mercygate]

harveyc:

Fine, I didn’t question whether it was legitimate or not though. Since Fr. Fessio accidentally included the name of Pope John Paul II in the Eucharistic Prayer, this may have been an accident as well, as far as I know. If it was intentional to exclude it, I wondered if Fr. Fessio had a specific purpose in mind. He went to great lengths to explain the direction of prayer and would have thought he would have explained this as well since he was being instructional. I haven’t read Spirit of the Liturgy yet, so maybe it’s something that was mentioned by Cardinal Ratazinger that could help explain it.

I would guess that Fessio left out sharing the sign of peace (he undoubtedly said, “The peace of the Lord be always with you.”) because this touchy-feely bit was introdruced with the Mass of Paul VI and, as I said, it is optional. I attend daily Mass at a Church which frequenty omits it.

 

[JKirkLVNV]

A question regarding ad orientum:

Does the priest face true east? What if the altar is situated in such a way that in order to face true east, the priest would have to face the congregation? Does he face the congregation or turn to the west?
In the Episcopal church I attended in Texas (beautiful old Norman looking thing), the priest normally said mass with his back to the congregation, but the altar was so situated that he was actually facing north.

 

[harveyc]

mercygate:

I would guess that Fessio left out sharing the sign of peace (he undoubtedly said, “The peace of the Lord be always with you.”) because this touchy-feely bit was introdruced with the Mass of Paul VI and, as I said, it is optional. I attend daily Mass at a Church which frequenty omits it.

Thanks for the follow-up. I honestly don’t think Fr. Fessio said “The peace of the Lord be always with you.” I remembered thinking at the time when the sign of peace was omitted that there wasn’t anything similar to it. I might be mistaken, though.

JKirkLVNV:

A question regarding ad orientum:

Does the priest face true east? What if the altar is situated in such a way that in order to face true east, the priest would have to face the congregation? Does he face the congregation or turn to the west?

Well, thanks for asking this question because I had wondering during Mass (and afterwards) if we were actually facing east. At home I attend Mass at two different parishes and one is facing east and the other is facing west. I just checked out the Anaheim Convention Center map and it would appear that we (and Fr. Fessio) were facing northwest.

 

[snow_white]

I vaguely remember someone explaining how a priest could face “east” in the spiritual sense if it is impossible for the alter to be moved facing East. I am just guessing here, but maybe what’s important is that everybody is facing the same direction to the east or “east”.