Speaking in tongues at pentecost mass

[AngelRose81]

Our parish does this at the later Mass on Sunday (10:30). I’ve never seen it b/c I attend the 8:00 Mass which is a very traditional NO Mass. Apparantely we have 10 different languages spoken at the 10:30 Mass of Pentecost.

To revise my earlier statement we have the Petitions (not the readings) done in 20 different languages:thumbsup:

 

[Hijikata]

forgive the ignorant…why facing north. why not east, or south for that matter.

Hello down under, since I don’t have time to write out a proper response I googled the question and found a very nice response from a poster on Father Z blog.

The gospel is always read facing north at a Solemn High Mass. This is a very old tradition. In the early century of Christianity, when Africa and most of the Medterranean had already been converted, the pagan tribes to the north were the focus of the Church’s missionary efforts. The deacon chants the gospel to “the people,” but the people to the north, to the unconverted parts of the world. This posture reminds the congregation that they are not a closed community, that there are people who have never heard the gospel. The north is always the darkest side of the Church. This is why at a low mass, the priest turns slightly to the north when he reads the gospel. Many monastic communities have dispensed with this tradition adn chant the gospel and epistle facing the people. In medieval cathedrals, old testament saints were reserved for the dark side of the church while the saints to come after Christ were portrayed on the windows of the south side. If you ever get a chance to visit the older churches in Rome (Santa Sabina, San Clemente, etc.) you can see the ambos on teh north and south side of the choir once used for chanting the readings.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

“The Gospel was sung from the ambo (ambon), a pulpit generally halfway down the church, from which it could be best heard by every one (Cabrol, Dict. d’archéol. chrét. et de liturgie, Paris, 1907, s.v. “Ambon”, I, 1330-47). Often there were two ambos: one for the other lessons, on the left (looking from the altar); the other, for the Gospel, on the right. From here the deacon faced south, as the “Ordo Rom. II” says (Mabillon, Musæum italic., II, 46), noting that the men generally gather there. Later, when the ambo had disappeared, the deacon turned to the north. Micrologus (De missa, ix) notices this and explains it as an imitation of the celebrant’s position at the altar at low Mass — one of the ways in which that service has reacted on to high Mass. The Byzantine Church still commands the deacon to sing the Gospel from the ambo (e.g. Brightman, op. cit., 372), though with them, too, it has generally become only a theoretical place in the middle of the floor.”

This explanation was from a poster named Micheal.wdtprs.com/blog/2008/03/palm-sunday-tlm-at-assumption-grotto-in-detroit/ .

Have a good day.