Monday, February 09, 2009

Capturing the Imagination?

I am intrigued, why when I celebrate the Traditional Mass does someone seems to have a camera? It hardly ever happens with the Novus Ordo. I am sure the TLM is more photographic, facing the same way gives the liturgy a certain visual perspective. I wonder, does it capture the imagination more.

Clare, our Director of Music, just happened to have her camera running in the church during Candlemas, she has turned it into a sound and image montage, it ends with an extract of the Gospel in English before the sermon.

13 comments:

Jane said...

Der Fr.,

As we used to say at St. Mary's Cadogan St., and this time, with great joy, 'not a dry eye in the house.'

Can I plead with you to offer your next TLM for the Holy Father. You can register it anonymously on Fr Byers' bloggingLOURDES poll of prayer for Pope Bendict. He has over a thousand Rosaries but only 17 Masses. Am doing my best networking for Fr Byers and His Holiness of course. Can you help?

On my knees, pleeeaaase!
J

PJA said...

Wonderful. I've just arrived home after a midday EF Mass in Ryde, celebrated expertly (I hope it's okay to term it as such) by Fr Glaysher. It's wonderful to have that time of adoration in the EF; it's missing from the OF. Likewise, the beautiful prayers at the Offertory and Communion. What a shame they are missing from the NO.

Physiocrat said...

Maybe it is just a statistical thing. How many people would turn out on a cold winter evening for a Novus Ordo mass? Though this one was also a requiem for the PP's father and so it was an opportunity to express condolences to the PP.

Whether there is an element of novelty remains to be seen. But if numbers hold up consistently then it may be time to have a weekly Sunday EF Missa Cantata.

torchofthefaith said...

Dear Father

Thanks for sharing this video which allows us to share a small part of such beauty, reverence, majesty and awe...

In Christ
Alan and Angeline

gemoftheocean said...

Nicely done. I do note how when people do photos of a LM, they are often taken from the SIDE. [That way people can see what the heck Father was doing....]

I expect it is more often done because for the average Catholic a Latin Mass is "novel" and for something like Candlemass, there's a lot of eye-candy.

People sometimes take pictures at our NO Masses, but then we are a parish smack in the middle of a tourist area, and while it's certainly not done at every Mass, it happens with a fair frequency.

Volpius Leonius said...

Because it is the most beautiful thing this side of heaven of course Father!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Thank you father. Although in my homeland there are no traditional masses, seeing things like this gives me hope.

Anonymous said...

Please no weekly EF mass on a Sunday. Sunday mass should be about unifying the parish not splitting us into those that care about altar rails and those that don't. When the 10,.30 mass on Sunday is offered for the people of our parish, ideally we should all be there, worshipping together. We are already divided into those that like music and those that don't, those that can get up in the morning and those that can't. We should be looking at what aspects of the EF mass are missing from the OF and consider putting them in eg. Introits and Communion responses. Creating a mass that the majority want. We should not be going backwards.

The reason l made the film was not because l am in awe of the EF mass, quite the opposite. I am in awe of our parish, it's faith and the people that make it the parish that it is. That is what is worth celebrating, not whether we are looking at Father Ray's front or rear view.

And you won't get me doing a weekly missa cantata. It's too much work at this stage for us. It took me three days just to learn the Offertory chant for the Requiem and you know how many rehearsals we had for Candlemas.

We are just a small Brighton parish with few resources. We need to stick together.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Clare, It won't happen unless it is obviously the will of the parish and those who minister at the liturgy. What we do generally is ordinary, the other is extraordinary.
Though the liturgies last week were beautiful, thankyou.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Clare, what a wonderfully beautiful video, of what must have been a wonderful Mass!

Athanasius said...

Thank you for this, Father - and Clare, for shooting it!

I'm always amazed how many pictures of Masses there are around the blogosphere... the least charitable aspect of me wonders why people are filming the Mass rather than simply praying, but then I'm just grateful that they did!!

On a slightly separate note, I just came across this b/w 1941 Easter Sunday Mass on Youtube.

(on my blog, http://sufferingworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/easter-sunday-mass-chicago-1941.html )


Maybe it's old hat, but I found it fascinating to watch.

Patricius said...

Dear Father,
When I was seven years old I was given a missal with Latin and English on facing pages. Since the Latin text occupied less space a series of illustrations of the mass were placed at the top of the Latin pages relating to the part in the text below. It was therefore neither necessary to understand Latin nor, indeed, to be able to hear the priest in order to follow what was going on at the altar. Simple visual cues and their context- actions, almost literally, spoke louder than words. What happened was a "liturgical ballet" in a very positive sense. The priest stood at the foot of the altar before mounting the altar steps. Later he stood at the "Epistle Side" of the altar. The server removing the missal on its stand from the Epistle side and descending the altar steps before replacing it on the other side was our cue to stand for the Gospel...and so on. In short the mass, even a low mass, was a profoundly visual experience. It will perhaps be unsurprising if I say that the first instruction I recall having been given as a child at mass was to "watch!" I believe that visual experience which had a rational and meaningful structure to it had a power to engage the imagination which is largely absent from the new mass. In my view it was beautiful not because the ritual was elaborate but because it so clearly made sense.

Adulio said...

Clare - thank you for making the video first of all.

In regards to your comment - I don't understand why are you opposed to a mass in the EF? It's not as if someone is forcing you to go to it? Would it be charitable to ignore the legitimate desires of the traditional folk at St. Mary's?

Surely you must want to see the quality of worship improved wherever it can? How would having a weekly low mass (if there was demand) be a barrier?

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