Una Voce Dicentes
“Crying out with one voice…” ( from the Preface of the Mass)
News from Una Voce of Northeast Florida
Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapter
Volume No. 2 Issue No. 6 July 2005
Our fundraiser was a great success! The winner of the laptop computer was Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio! Thanks to your hard work, we now have $1500.00 to help us continue to spread the word on the beauty of the Latin Mass at Immaculate Conception and throughout Northeast Florida!! Once again, a big thank you to all the members of UVNFL and parishioners of IC for making this fundraiser a success. And congratulations to Immaculate Conception Cleveland!
Have you visited our website, latinmassjax.org? Rachel Askwith has worked diligently on the site and would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Thank you, Rachel, for your hard work.
Fr. Leon has asked that our information table be set up only once a month, so that the vestibule can be available for other groups to use also. We will plan on setting up on the 1st Sunday of every month. We have seen a positive response from visitors and newcomers: the ability to have questions answered and to pick up small informational items and veils has been appreciated. Each member will be expected to help man this table. We will proceed alphabetically. The schedule for the next month is as follows:
7-3-05 Askwith
Please note: this and all subsequent newsletters will be posted on our website. Also, for those of you with email, beginning next month, the newsletter will be sent to you electronically, to save on postage. If you do not have email, or do not want to receive it that way, please let me know so we can send it to you via snail-mail.
Also, if any member would like to contribute an article for publication in this newsletter, just forward it to uvnfl@bellsouth.net for consideration.
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An Editorial
Why do we attend the Latin Mass?
This question is often asked by other lay Catholics and even clergy. Is it simply because it is in Latin? Hardly. Are we simply nostalgic? No. Do we believe the Novus Ordo is invalid? Of course not. Do we understand that the Holy Eucharist is the same whatever rite we attend? Certainly we do. Then why? Simply stated, we attend the Latin Mass because we love the truth, beauty, and reverence that are intrinsically a part of this rite. The Latin Mass connects us more perfectly with the form of praise and worship of our ancestors. It is like a beautiful and valuable family heirloom passed from Catholic generation to Catholic generation.
Is it necessary that we all understand Latin and speak it fluently in order to fully participate in the Mystery of the Eucharist? No. In the middle ages, most people couldn’t even read or write in the vernacular, much less in Latin, the language of the well-educated. Today, however, many have studied Latin in high school and college and do, to some extent, understand; so it can hardly be asserted that we are drawn to the Latin Mass because it is in a “mysterious” language we do not comprehend! Additionally, for countless generations, hand missals have been in both the Latin and vernacular, so anyone could understand what was being said, and we all, worldwide, understood the same thing! Latin is a dead language, and it is for that reason the Church, in Her wisdom, has retained its use (and now encourages its revival). Latin no longer changes, as does the vernacular, and therefore its meanings cannot be misunderstood. Throughout the centuries, the use of Latin ensured that our precious Faith was transmitted with absolute faithfulness in both the Liturgy and Church documents. Latin also unified us as Catholics: one language, regardless of culture, truly made us catholic. So it is not necessary that we all understand Latin and speak it fluently in order to fully participate in the Mystery of the Eucharist. Moreover, more important to real participation in the Mass is the uniting of our hearts and minds to the Sacrifice taking place on the altar than understanding the language in which the Sacrifice is taking place.
Are we simply longing for the past?
The traditional “movement” has been growing at a tremendous rate over recent years. A large number of those drawn to the Latin Mass are those born after Vatican II. These young people have nothing to be nostalgic about! “Authenticity matters to today’s young adults, and many of the new faithful gravitate to the prayers and practices that their parents’ generation rejected – like the liturgy of the hours and even the Latin Mass. As one seminarian told me, ‘We’re rebelling against the rebellion. We want tradition.’ To paraphrase author Romano Guardini, these young believers do not see religion as a question of old things or new things, but as a question of things eternal. ” (Colleen Carroll , author of “The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy” Loyola Press, 2002).
Do we believe the Novus Ordo Mass is valid?
Of course we believe the Novus Ordo Mass is valid! But we prefer the tradition, beauty, and reverence of the Latin Mass.
Do we understand that it is the same Eucharistic Sacrifice, regardless of rite?
Of course we do. But we sincerely believe that the “wrappings” of the Sacrifice matter tremendously. If the “wrappings” (i.e., the gestures, wording of prayers, music) do not matter at all, then we should be satisfied with some sort of generic communion service—if that’s all that really matters! But, in fact, the wrappings do matter, because we should only want to give the best and the highest worship to God. As Dietrich von Hildebrand asks in his Case for the Latin Mass, “For the question is whether we better meet Christ in the Mass by soaring up to Him, or by dragging Him down into our own pedestrian, workaday world.” Sursum corda. Habemus ad Dominum . . . Dignum et justum est.
We attend the Latin Mass because we believe that it more perfectly transmits our Faith. It more perfectly conveys a sense of awe and mystery. It more perfectly unites us with the entire Body of Christ—Church Triumphant, Suffering, and Militant. Is it perfect? No. But Christ commanded us to “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” This applies to the Liturgy, too. In our constant temporal battle with imperfection and mediocrity, we attend the Latin Mass because we know it leads us more perfectly along the path to Christ.
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Papal Masses
on TV: Benedict XVI Wants a New Director
Joseph Ratzinger has always had serious
reservations about Piero Marini, choreographer of John Paul II's masses. “La
Civiltà Cattolica” explains how to coordinate the pontifical liturgies with the
medium of television.
ROMA, June 10, 2005 – Of the two
men who constantly appeared in public at the side of John Paul II, the first –
his personal secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz – is no longer seen, having been
promoted to the metropolitan see of Krakow.
But the second is still there, and continues to appear beside the new pope,
Benedict XVI. He is Archbishop Piero Marini, master of ceremonies for the
pontifical liturgies.
Marini has been the director of the papal masses since 1987. Very often, thanks
to the fact that these are broadcast on television, they are seen by hundreds of
millions of people all over the world, and are thus raised to the level of a
universal model.
And it is thanks in large part to Marini that the masses of John Paul II took on
their characteristic form. It is a form that is less Roman and more
international. Gregorian chant and polyphony have been mostly removed, and their
place in the papal rites has been given frequently to music, texts, and dances
taken from Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
But in addition to being international, John Paul II's liturgies were typical
television fare. Marini himself theorized that "the direction of the liturgy is
obliged to harmonize itself with television direction."
The systematic use of television for the papal masses will remain with Benedict
XVI.
But it can be foreseen, on the other hand, that the "direction of the liturgy"
will not be the same. As a cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger never kept secret his
criticisms of some aspects of Marini's preferred approach.
And even with his inaugural mass Benedict XVI has made it clear that he wants to
accomplish a "reform of the reform" in this area, with increased fidelity to the
great tradition of the Church.
So it is foreseeable that Marini will also leave the stage, and will be replaced
by a pontifical master of ceremonies more in agreement with the current pope.
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Redemptive Suffering:
"Offering it Up"
Taken from the article of the same name on the Apologia website, www.kensmen.com
Formally, many Catholics make
the Morning Offering to give to Our Lord that day's efforts, works, joys,
sufferings, intentions, etc. (the form may vary). At the Mass, we exercise our
lay priesthood by consciously, silently, privately offering ourselves up, along
with the Son, to the Father during the Offertory.
Informally, we "offer it up" by simply asking God in our own words to use a
suffering as it occurs; we often do this for specific intentions (ex., "Use this
pain, Lord, for the salvation of my brother..."). We might follow the example of
the young St. Thérèse of Lisieux and make use of Sacrifice Beads, or the
extraordinary among us might make the Heroic Act of Charity for the souls in
Purgatory.
It's quite a discipline to react to suffering this way! In mental or physical
pain? Drop something on your toe? Putting up with a co-worker who is making your
life a living Hell? Enduring the constant ache of arthritis? Standing in line at
the grocery and hating every minute of it? Spill the milk? Accept these things
in peace, and ask God to use them for the good of the Church or for a more
specific intention close to your heart. This isn't easy to do (and I in no way
claim to be good at it), but it does make the suffering more meaningful
and less -- well, less insufferable!
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The Collapse and Rebirth of Sacred Music: An interview with Richard Morris
Excerpts from Latin Mass Magazine’s interview with renowned organist and traditionalist, Richard Morris.
[Sacred Music?] There’s nothing sacred about it. The tunes, rhythms and messages are drawn mainly from secular culture. When it isn’t aesthetically repugnant and downright offensive to the Faith, it is utterly forgettable…The democratic and pedestrian character of the new Mass itself seems to invite the ditties that pass for hymns these days.
Ironically, we live in times that are awash in authentic sacred music. We hear it in concert halls, on our CD players at home, in our cars, in movies, on television, in shopping centers and even in Protestant churches.
Catholic liturgical music, it would seem, is everywhere but in the Catholic Church itself. Only the Catholic Church seems blind to its power. This is one of the greatest travesties of the post-Conciliar period. We’ve abandoned the sacred treasury and replaced it with drivel.
The renaissance of sacred music in the secular world occurred in the last 25 years, precisely the period in which the Catholic liturgy itself was shredded. Its secular revival, then, may be God’s way of preserving it in spite of current liturgical trends.
For 35 years, Catholics have had people beating them over their heads screaming ‘sing, sing, sing!’ And yet congregational hymns in the Protestant sense are not part of the historical Catholic experience except at extra-liturgical services like novenas and Low Mass.
An old friend of mine in Atlanta was telling me about the music at his parish. He said it was a wonderful mix of the old and the new and said, ‘I think that’s important, don’t you?’ I told him it was like preparing a glorious dish for someone and then at the last minute throwing some dead flies in the mix, to avoid being accused of elitism. It tends to bring the level of the whole experience down, and rather dramatically.
It’s crucial to understand that the origin of all this began even before the Second Vatican Council closed. The destruction of the treasury of sacred music was part and parcel of the whole plan.
As far as I’m concerned [the indult] offers the only hope. It is absolutely essential that pastors of these communities encourage good music. It means working to cultivate the chant and fund the choir by making good sheet music available to them. The point is not to return to the way the Mass was sung forty years ago but to do it reverently and correctly now.
Once the Mass is restored to its rightful place, we will again see the choirs developed.
You can read about it all you want but there’s just no substitute for just [starting a Latin Mass choir]. Don’t worry about whether you sound like the monks on the recordings. You won’t. The important point is to get going. [Sacred Music] is a gift from God that we should use.
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Did You Know?
The signs of the Cross during the Sacrifice
Source: Roman Catholic Daily Missal, Angelus Press, 2004
The Consecration of the Sacrament, its acceptance by God, and its fruits all proceed from the virtue of the Cross of Christ, and the Priest uses the sign of the Cross wherever mention of them is made. Thus at nine occasions throughout the Canon, the sign of the Cross is used to bring to our minds the Passion and death of our Lord in various stages:
v The three signs of the Cross at the beginning of the Canon represent Christ’s betrayal, which was the work of God, of Judas, and of the Jews.
v After the Hanc Igitur, there are five signs: the first three signify the selling of Christ to the Priests, to the scribes, and to the Pharisees, or to signify the thirty pieces of silver. The following two signs signify the person of Judas the seller, and of Christ Who was sold.
v At each Consecration, the sign of the Cross foreshadows Christ’s Passion.
v The five signs after the Consecration represent the five wounds of Christ.
v The three signs before the Prayers after the Consecration signify the outstretching of Christ’s Body, the shedding of His Blood, and the fruits of the Passion.
v The three signs at the Final Doxology represent Christ’s threefold prayer upon the Cross: for His persecutors (“Father, forgive them”); for deliverance from death (“My God, My God”); and the third refers to His entrance into glory (“Father, into Thy Hands”).
v The three signs at the Minor Elevation signify, first, the three hours Our Lord hung on the Cross, and the two subsequent signs, the separation of His Soul from His Body in death.
v At the Pax Domini, the three signs represent the Resurrection on the third day. This is the last of nine occasions during the Sacrifice itself on which signs of the Cross are made, and completes the representation of Christ’s Passion.
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Feast Days for July 2005 (Traditional Calendar)
July 1, The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord
July 2, The Visitation of the BVM
July 5, St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria
July 7, Sts. Cyril and Methodius
July 8, St. Elizabeth of Portugal
July 12, St. John Gualbert
July 14, St. Bonaventure
July 15, St. Henry
July 18, St. Camillius of Lellis
July 19, St. Vincent de Paul
July 20, St. Jerome Aemilian
July 21, St. Laurence of Brindisi
July 22, St. Mary Magdalene the Penitent
July 23, St. Apollinaris
July 25, St. James
July 26, St. Anne, Mother of the BVM
July 28, Sts. Nazarius and Celsus, St. Victor I, and St. Innocent I
July 29, St. Martha
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In Closing
The next meeting of Una Voce Northeast Florida will be on Sunday, July 17, after the 8 a.m. Mass. The “Know Your Mass” Class will also be on July 17, immediately following the meeting. The monthly meeting and class are held the 3rd Sunday of every month.
The Rosary, said on the second Sundays, will be suspended until further notice.
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Contact Information
For more information about Una Voce of Northeast Florida, please contact Mollie Garcia at 287-6470 or uvnfl@bellsouth.net, or visit UVNFL’s website at www.latinmassjax.org
The Latin Mass is said at 8:00AM every Sunday at
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
121 E. Duval Street
Jacksonville, Fl 32202
359-0331
Confessions before all Masses
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls
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