Fact: Io Sto Con Benedetto !!!

Anch'io sto con Benedetto!!  E voi?

Grapevine: July 4th Time Change for Weekly Wednesday MEF at St. Ann's

Hello Readers... as most of you know, St. Ann's in Charlotte offers a regular, weekly Low Mass on Wednesday evenings at 6pm, following a 5pm Holy Hour. 

Word coming out of the Park Road Curia is that the MEF for Wedneday, July 4th will start a bit  earlier... Holy Hour beginning at 11am and Low Mass at 12 noon..

This is a one time change for the Independence Day holiday.

Don't forget about the upcoming Solemn High Mass on July 7th at 6.30pm to be offered at St. Ann's.

Fact: Video trailer of Fr. Barone's First Mass

Enjoy Gentle Readers.... I look forward to the full version! But until then, here is the trailer



Source: Momentum Studios

Fact: Terrific Article in Newspaper about Fr. Barone's First Mass in the Extraordinary Form

Dear Readers...

A terrific article can be found in the Catholic News Herald about Fr. Barone and his First Mass in the Extraordinary form... with some beautiful photos of the Mass.

(Source: SueAnn Howell, Catholic News Herald.)

Enjoy it!!

Grapevine: More Solemn High Masses at St. Ann's !!

Dear Readers,

The smell of incense has not yet fully left the sanctuary of St. Ann's in Charlotte after an awesomely beautiful Solemn High Mass offered by newly ordained priest, Fr. Jason Barone, when the Grapevine is all-a-buzz that the month of July will be another banner month for those who love the Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

I am hearing that preparations are underway for two more Solemn High Masses in July alone:

•  Saturday, July 7    -  VI Sunday after Pentecost (anticipated)
•  Thursday, July 26 -  Feast of St. Anne

It seems ever-so-fitting that the July 7th  Mass (if it becomes a "fact") will occur on the 5th Anniversary of the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum of our Holy Father, Benedict XVI (Long may he reign!) which liberated the Mass in the Extraordinary Form for all of us to enjoy.

Also, along this line, sources within the "Park Rd Curia" are saying that there could even be a Mass offered on Friday, Sept. 14 - Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross as a thanksgiving for the 5th anniversary of the implementation of Summorum Pontificum.

I know that there are many readers who are disappointed that in these last 5 years we have yet to achieve a regular, weekly MEF that would satisfy our Sunday obligation, myself included... but what I keep telling myself, and would encourage each of you, is continued patience.

As I look at the continued growth of the number of priests and seminarians in the Charlotte area that know how to offer the MEF; the number of servers who can serve the MEF; the continuing maturity of the St. Ann Schola and Choir in support of both Gregorian Propers & Ordinary as well as beautiful polyphony; the number of Novus Ordo Catholics newly "exposed" to the MEF...all of it is tracking in the right direction!

But in addition to patience, Gentle Readers, I think there is more that needs to be done by those of us that so love this Treasury of Holy Mother Church... we need to support all of this efforts with our time, talent, and treasure.

• Time:  Be sure to attend these Masses when they are offered and pray
• Talent: Volunteer to help train the servers, or usher at a Mass, or to sing in the Schola
• Treasure: Vestiments, whether priestly or server cassocks, Mass programs, and candles, etc... these all cost money, and your financial support can go a long way

But the best way as always to support is via prayer... please pray for all the Priests, clerics, servers, musicians, and laymen/women who make all this possible.. and for our Holy Father and Bishop.

"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too..." 
                                                            -- Pope Benedict XVI

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!