Fact: the Solemn High Mass was sublime

Gentle Readers,

Greetings to you at the end of an emotional day full of spiritual graces.  After attending the Ordination yesterday (June 2, 2012) for three new priests for the Diocese of Charlotte (emotional and grace-filled in and of itself)... today I assisted at the First Mass for one of those three priests... now Father Jason Barone.   It was, in the word used over and over by many... "sublime"!

It was a First Mass of a new priest... and it was in the Extraordinary Form!  In the words of Father Barone himself:

"For me, the Latin Mass has had a profound impact on inspiring and sustaining my vocation overs these six years of priestly formation.  A Solemn High Latin Mass is therefore the most beautiful and solemn means of expression I  know to render to God for all He has done in my life."

This type of response from a newly ordained priest continues to give me hope for the future of Holy Mother Church's "treasury of inestimable value" getting made more visible to Her children.  Please continue to pray with me for Father Barone, Father Reid, and all our priests and seminarians.

The beauty of today's Mass could be experienced in so many ways, on so many planes ... and I neither have the time, energy, or vocabulary to express it all... but allow me to try to capture a few...

Firstly, the "eye candy" of liturgical precision for Father's First Mass... lead by experienced clerics along with some of St. Ann's outstanding servers with whom we have become accustomed to their reverent and precise service at the altar.

Secondly, the music... to avoid the overused word 'sublime', let me try the word 'moving'.  I am sorry, if you were someone inside St. Ann's today during this Mass, and you were not moved or have goosebumps at least one point during that Mass... then you must be dead, and I will pray for you!  St. Ann's Schola blog already has the link up to the selection of music from the Mass.   Hearing both the Gregorian plainchant and the great polyphonic strains on more than one occasion lifted me up and I felt like I was floating with the unseen angels in the church.... and that organ, wow!

Thirdly, and most importantly... the spiritual Graces that flow out of that Mass, due to the Eucharist itself, and to the outstanding homily by Father Barone's Theology professor at seminary.


As if this Solemn High Mass was not emotional and moving enough for me, I will in closing share two additional moments for me today that I hope to elaborate on in later posts, but want to share while they were still fresh.

1. At the Novus Ordo Mass this morning, Father Reid announced that one of the altar boys has been  accepted to the seminary and will start in the Fall.  Please pray for this young man, and for more vocations.
2. I ended my evening by going to the movies (something I had not done since The Passion of the Christ was released) to the For Greater Glory, and I must say that I am not the same person I was when I went into that theater.  It has had a tremendous impact on me, and I need to meditate on and hopefully share with you.  If you have plans to see it yourself, be warned that it has some very disturbing scenes, but then again it is a very disturbing set of events from history that are being documented.

 Tu es sacerdos in aeternum....   Viva Cristo Rey!