
Nearly all the images of him currently on the web seem to derive from one photograph, so this is of some interest, since it shows him in mitre and cope. I might try to get a better photograph if I find myself in Prinknash again.
Appended to Leo XIII’s apostolic epistle “Amantissimae Voluntatis”, 14 April 1895, Acta Sanctae Sedis 27 [1894-5] at page 593.
Ad Sanctissimam Virginem: Pro Anglis fratribus precatioO beata Virgo Maria, Mater Dei, Regina nostra et Mater dulcissima, benigna oculos tuos converte ad Angliam, quae Dos tua vocatur, converte ad nos, qui magna in te fiducia confidimus. Per te datus est Christus Salvator mundi, in quo spes nostra consisteret; ab ipso autem tu data es nobis, per quam spes eadem augeretur. Eia igitur, ora pro nobis, quos tibi apud Crucem Domini excepisti filios, o perdolens Mater: intercede pro fratribus dissidentibus, ut nobiscum in unico vero Ovili adiungantur summo Pastori, Vicario in terris Filii tui. Pro nobis omnibus deprecare, o Mater piissima, ut per fidem, bonis operibus foecundam, mereamur tecum omnes contemplari Deum in caelesti patria et collaudare per saecula. Amen.
O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England thy "Dowry" and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in thee. By thee it was that Jesus our Saviour and our hope was given unto the world; and He has given thee to us that we might hope still more. Plead for us thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the cross. O sorrowful Mother! intercede for our separated brethren, that with us in the one true fold they may be united to the supreme Shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son. Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works we may all deserve to see and praise God, together with thee, in our heavenly home. Amen.
I have a short article in the current issue of a magazine called 'Networking: Catholic Education Today'. This is supplied to members of the Catholic Association of Teachers, Schools and College, and various other Catholic educational bodies. It isn't online so here's my article.
Young people and the Traditional Mass
In issuing the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum which liberated the ‘older form’ of the Mass – the Mass as it was said up to and during the Second Vatican Council – Pope Benedict remarked (in the Letter to Bishops which accompanied it) that ‘it has clearly been demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, particularly suited to them.’ The evidence for this which the Holy Father might have had in mind would include the many young people attached to the Traditional Mass who attend the Papal ‘World Youth Day’ events with ‘Juventutem’ groups, the 10,000 mainly young people who walk the 70 miles from Paris to Chartres each Pentecost, and the many young people who seek to join the newly established religious orders, of both men and women, which have adopted the Traditional Mass as their own.
That is the evidence; what is the explanation? The Holy Father gives us a clue in the same document, referring to ‘the sacrality which attracts many people to the former usage’. The ‘New’ Mass, published in 1970, was intended to attract people to the Faith by increasing its ‘accessibility’: prayers were to be easily understood, ritual actions simplified and easily viewed. The flip side of this process is a loss of sacrality: the mysterious Latin words and partly hidden complex actions of the earlier form of the Mass manifest the fact that something sacred is taking place, something awe-inspiring.
This fact is communicated not only through the meaning of the prayers and rituals, but by the overall effect of ordered and symbolic movement, the use of Latin, periods of silence, and sacred music. Through these things the Traditional liturgy tells us in a way which transcends words that we are in the presence of God, and that we are worshipping Him. This is not a failure of accessibility, but accessibility of a different kind.
Sometimes the older generation finds it incomprehensible that young people should find order, dignity, and mystery attractive. But these things are perennially attractive to young men and women who instinctively want to leave behind what is childish, embarrassing, and banal. Today these things have a special attraction because they are so lacking in secular culture. In the Mass they convey the most profound truths of the Catholic Faith, which are too often obscured in ordinary parish and school liturgies by free-wheeling liturgical abuses, as the Vatican instruction Redemptoris Sacramentum has argued: this kind of informality actually makes it harder to recognise Christ in the liturgy (RS 4-6). The Traditional Mass provides an escape to the inexhaustible riches of the Church’s wisdom and spirituality.
Most Catholics today under 50 have never experienced the Traditional Mass. It is the Holy Father’s wish that all should have access to it, and benefit from ‘the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer’ (Summorum Pontificum, Letter to Bishops).
The Latin Mass Society: www.latin-mass-society.org
The British affiliate of Juventutem is Young Catholic Adults: www.youngcatholicadults.co.uk
The Cantores Missae sang two years ago at my Oxford Pilgrimage Mass and were wonderful - there they are in the picture, in the loft at Blackfriars in Oxford.
Mulier Fortis has made a video featuring their singing at Blackfen.
Praise to the holiest
Price per CD
1 - 5 £12.99
6 - 10 12.34
11 - 15 11.69
16 - 20 11.04
21 - 25 10.39
26 + 9.74
Or email: admin@cantoresmissae.co.uk