I heard an interesting story when I once visited Clear Creek Monastery in Oklahoma. They are a daughter house of Fontgambault in France. They are Benedictine and both celebrate the TLM exclusively.
When Pope John Paul II issued his indult in the 1980’s the monastery at Fontgambault wanted to use it to celebrate the TLM. They had already been celebrating the NO in Latin. Someone (I’m not sure who) basically told them they couldn’t. They obeyed. And for 12 years they celebrated the NO in Latin. Well, after about 12 years the Abbott went to Rome and met the Pope. The Pope asked him how he was enjoying the indult. The Abbott told him that they had not yet had the privilege of enjoying the indult.
Well, apparently very soon afterward someone got a call from the Vatican (I’m not saying it was the Pope himself; I don’t know) and when the Abbott returned the person who had been blocking the indult was peeved but had to tell them that they could go ahead and utilize the indult. And they’ve been doing so ever since. Deo Gratias!
This is an excellent example of how things work between the Pontifical Orders and the Church. They have their own internal communication. It was unfortunate that someone had to stick their nose where it didn’t belong and this poor Abbot hadn’t heard the good news that he was waiting for. But you see, this is what I’m trying to teach the laity. The religious will move on this, on their terms and in coordination with the Holy See.
Our religious in our parish decided that we do not need the EF, because we already have five masses on Sunday and two on Saturday with standing room only. In fact, on Easter Sunday we will have 10 masses. We are going to rent some priests, as we have seven religious but only three priests. There is a rule about the number of masses that a priest may celebrate in one day.
However, the announcement was not a condemnation of the EF or delivered in negative tones. As for the community, they will continue to use the NO, because it is serving their spiritual needs. I think that because the Brothers are being very relaxed about it, so are the people. The fact is that we don’t have place for another mass. Our church is very small. I don’t know the exact size, but I bet it doesn’t sit more than 800 at one time.
Tonight, I went to the youth mass, which I normally do not go to, because the music is not my style. However, my son has autism and he really gets into it. He doesn’t have mental retardation. In fact, he’s in college. He does have language problems. He needs to see what he hears. He is the type of autistic who needs the visual (name removed by moderator)ut. They were going to have the young people dramatize, if that’s the right word, the gospel as it was read. I’m not sure if it’s drama, because they didn’t say anything. They just acted it out as the church went through it. I knew it was the very long gospel of Palm Sunday. To subject anyone with autism to that Gospel without the visual (name removed by moderator)ut would be cruel. They can’t follow along that long or visualize what’s happening in the story. I was pleasantly surprised. The kids did a beautiful job. Their attitude and reverence from the beginning to the end was inspiring.
They even had a scourging, crowning of thorns and a life-size cross where they actually hung one of the kids, etc.
After mass I asked my son, “What did you think?” He said, “I didn’t know that Jesus rode a coult and an ***. How the heck did he ride both?” I started to laugh, because it’s one of those details in Matt’s Gospel that I never paid special attention to. Jesus does in fact ask them to bring both animals. After I explained to him the whole story, he asked another question. “Why did they stop when he died? Why didn’t they read the part when he rose?” I explained again that this would come next Sunday. I explained the meaning of Passion Sunday to him. These subtleties are difficult for people with language disorders, but they’re important. When they pick up on them, it’s a breakthrough, because then they begin to understand their faith better.
My son has been exposed to mass and Palm Sunday since he was born. His mother was Catholic, he attended Catholic schools from Pre-K to grade 12. But no one realized that some of the subtleties of liturgical language that we take for granted went right over his head. I thank God for the opportunity to take him to a mass where there is visual representation that help him put together the whole picture. It also allows us to celebrate the Eucharist as a family.
I took him twice to an EF and he fell asleep. I had to keep nudging him. He finds it very difficult to follow the booklet with the English and Latin. We attended two masses at the Vatican, both on Christmas Eve. During one mass we sat in the rear of the sanctuary. On holy days like Christmas, the Basilica is so full that the set up chairs behind the main altar on the back of the sanctuary, but you are looking at the Pope’s back and the concelebrants. My son was desparate to leave. The second time, I made arrangements with a friend of mine who works at the Vatican for seats in front of the sanctuary. This time he was wide awake. Though he could’t follow the Latin prayers, he did follow the Holy Father’s homily, because we speak Italian and Spanish at home. He even chuckled at something funny that Benedict said. He liked the excitement when the Pope is leaving at the end of the liturgy everyone stands on the pews and chairs just to see him and he tries to shake hands with those who are close to the aisle. He got to shake Benedict’s hand.
Now I know to go with him to mas where he can see and hear what is happpening. It raises his level of interest and he is more in tune with the mystery of the Eucharist. I’m hoping that they’ll keep the youth mass in our parish, even if they do put an EF on the schedule.
JR
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