It has to be admitted that – mostly through sloth – I do not avail myself as often as I might of the possibility to attend Mass in the Extraordinary Form. I do, however, try to do so at least once during the Octave of Pentecost, the abolition of which in the new calendar I rather resent. By this I feel justified in proclaiming that, whatever, I am still in Eastertide. (N.B.: Our temporal rulers having so far left us Monday after Pentecost as a national holiday, the Catholic Church in Germany is a bit in a quandary anyway, and generally does celebrate the second day of the Octave, though not the rest.)
Hence I went to the Fraternity of St. Peter’s Mass today, and got:
- Mass said most beautifully by a newly ordained priest (ad Aelianum: He did not even succumb to the tendency to repeat Epistle or Gospel in German, or to have the congregation say ‘Domine non sum dignus…’ in German, as it is mostly done hereabouts!)
- Pentecostal sequence, Gloria, Creed, lots of Alleluias when the OF would have been back to drab Ordinary Time
- Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament
- Absolution after Confession
- Blessing by the newly ordained priest after Mass
- Blessing of a statue and an icon of Our Lady, a cross and a Rosary, some of which had been unblessed in my possession for years (I tend to be shy to just step up to priests after Mass to have them bless things; moreover, though I mostly go to OF Masses, I always strive to have devotionals etc. blessed “the old way” , sacramentals being not ex opere operatum and all that.) I did not realize that there are separate blessings for cross, rosary and statues/images of Our Lady, nor that the fervour of the newly ordained would induce him to separately bless even the two items that might have been legitimately grouped. This was all the more commendable as it was hot, and the poor priest was sweating so much in his cassock + surplice in the stuffy vestry that drops were actually falling from his face. I stood by in mixed feelings of pity, guilt, amusement and edification.
I felt most elated on my way home, I have to say.
Laodicea 
June 16, 2011 at 10:08 pm
I’m still saying the office of Pentecost 😀 Ditching the octaves is all very well for the focused, disciplined and holy, but for the existentially distracted, octaves are almost enough time to collect oneself and arrive at the relevant feast!
June 17, 2011 at 5:09 pm
‘He did not even succumb to the tendency to repeat Epistle or Gospel in German’
I have to say that I think it is a good thing for the priest to repeat the Epistle and the Gospel in the vernacular before the homily and not something that one should not succumb to. Unless, perhaps, the Mass is said for a congregation one knows all are missal carrying EF devotees. However, even at that, to aid the growth of such a congregation to provide for any newcomers, the repetition of the epistle and the Gospel would not be a bad thing. At the appropriate place of course.
It is my understanding that this tendency is not of very recent origin, at least not for Sunday Masses.
I’m also still saying the office of Pentecost as I’m praying the Benedictine Monastic Diurnal, so I feel perfectly justified in considering myself still in Eastertide!
June 17, 2011 at 5:38 pm
I think Notburga is referring to the repetition of the Epistle and the Gospel in the vernacular at the altar not from the lectern prior to the homily.
June 17, 2011 at 10:12 pm
That does seem not to be in its proper place. How does that work? Does the priest repeat the Epistle and Gospel ad orientem?
June 17, 2011 at 9:38 pm
I find it distracting annoying and jarring to have the Epistle and Gospel repeated. There is a meditative rhythm to the Mass, and all of us over seven can read either the Latin before us or the vernacular translation. Those of us under seven should have the Epistle and Gospel read to us and and explained by our parents before Mass.
June 17, 2011 at 10:33 pm
I didn’t have a missal until recently, and I never take it anywhere because it’s falling apart. I don’t like to follow Mass in a book anyway. Literacy is not a prerequisite of being a Christian. And what about weekday Masses, when one’s been out to do this and that and the shopping – am I to take a missal out with me every day?
Priests usually assume, i think, that no-one can understand Latin, so they rarely read the readings clearly enough to follow (and for me, they have to read the Epistle at least quite slowly if I am to follow it). I’d be quite happy for the epistle and gospel to be repeated in Latin, but until mass Latin literacy becomes the norm, if they are going to repeat them anyway, they might as well do so in the vernacular.
June 18, 2011 at 10:14 pm
The Fraternity of St. Peter in Stuttgart have spare Missals available for the congregation. When I first started going to Trid Mass there, using them was positively thrust upon me, even though I was far too overcome by the thought that actually Our Lord was there to have any use for them.(Probably the priests were eager to be clear of any charge of obscurantism.) By now, however, I am quite glad to read the proper and the readings. With the words to read and the priest speaking distinctly enough, I often understand most of the Latin.
June 17, 2011 at 10:27 pm
O.K., it seems I have put form (fwiw) over content, plus I was slightly winding up Aelianus.
The Fraternity of St. Peter in Stuttgart has two approaches. On weekday Masses, some priests actually do not read the Latin Epistle/Gospel at all, but turn around from where they stand in front of the altar (right/left) and read it in German. This is something for which one can legitimately praise a priest of having not succumbed to.
At Sunday Masses (and in the case of some priests, at weekday Masses, too) Epistle/Gospel are properly read in Latin, and then again, from the lectern, in German, followed, on Sundays, by the homily.
While I am not scandalized by not having the German (though we have no whyte sheete, we have an ample provision of Latin-German people’s missals), I do not object to having Epistle and Gospel repeated. In fact, the times when I regularly went to Trid Mass, and read both first in German, then in Latin before Mass, read the Latin while the priest did so during Mass, and then listened to the German afterwards, were times when I would most definitely remember what those texts had been about for the whole week.
As the homily is an interruption – not meant in a negative way! – of the rest of the liturgy anyway (read something intelligent about this times ago; isn’t this why the priest takes of the maniple?), it does not, to my sensibility, interrupt the meditative rhythm at all. But on this views may differ.
June 17, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Hiya Notburga!
(might as well have kept chatting, Dad didn’t really want anything much and you’re not in bed anyway!) 😀
June 17, 2011 at 11:39 pm
I do not at all object to but appreciate the reading of the Epistle and Gospel in the vernacular at the beginning of the homily. It is only the reading of the Epistle and Gospel ad orientem after (and certainly instead of) their recitation in Latin that I object to. As for reading them from the the altar but facing the people this is a disaster in any language.
June 20, 2011 at 12:05 pm
😀