Do Young Children Belong at Mass?
Tradition favors formation through participation, not exclusion. Children belong at Mass precisely because they are learning to love what is sacred.
Sacrifice, Suffrages, and “This Mass Is Offered for….”
Even on Vatican II’s own terms for liturgical participation the contemporary Catholic seems handicapped unless he recovers two notions that have fallen into eclipse: that of the Mass as sacrifice and of suffrages.
The Perpetual Passover Feast
The perpetual Passover feast only makes sense to Catholics. The Passover sacrifice of the Lamb has continued unbroken on the altar since Jesus sealed the new covenant on the Cross.
The Injustice of an Irreverent Mass
Carelessly-celebrated Masses are still all-too-common, wherein the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is reduced to a kumbaya session.
Our Gestures at Mass Really Do Matter
When I lived in the northeast I had an embarrassment of riches in terms of the availability of Masses. There were 27 options for daily Mass within five miles of my northern home. At our new home on the border of the Carolinas there are only two or three options within 15 miles. Visiting different … Read more
God and Mass at Yale
“For God, For Country, and for Yale.” This phrase is etched into the stone arches that dot the landscape of Yale University. Yale, though founded by the Puritans for the purpose of missionary training, Christian education, and familiarity with the humanities and Biblical languages, has fallen far away from its original mission. This is nothing … Read more
On Man’s Proper Disposition Toward God During Mass
Anyone coming upon Dietrich von Hildebrand’s Liturgy and Personality (Hildebrand Press), who thinks it will be a manual on how to imbue the liturgy with one’s personality, or how not to do so, is in for a surprise, unsettling and salutary. The work is in the first instance metaphysical: we cannot discuss the relationship between … Read more
Reform of the Reform
Since the beginning of his pontificate, it has been widely understood that Pope Benedict XVI is working on a “reform of the reform” of the Catholic liturgy. The pope’s statements suggest that his intention is to clear up many of the distortions of Vatican II with regard to the liturgy, to combat widespread liturgical abuses, … Read more
