On 2 February, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there was a Pontifical Mass in Miami, celebrated by His Excellency Most Rev. Thomas Wenski.
Before I get to the liturgical eye-candy and some commentary on the meaning of this Mass, Archbp. Wenski said in his sermon:
Today, the witness of the Church on behalf of the dignity and right to life of the human person from the first moment of conception till natural death is itself a "sign that will be contradicted" – and is in fact contradicted in the present mandate of the Obama administration's Department of Health and Human Services' mandate to deny a religious exemption to Catholic institutions and thus force us to violate our consciences and to make us accomplices in evil.
WDTPRS kudos!
A couple shots from the website of the Archdiocese of Miami.
And
On the Archdiocesan website, there is some commentary from Father Chris Marino, pastor of St. Michael Church in Miami. Among the helpful things he said is this:
"What's happening tonight should give us an indication of what should be happening in our parishes every Sunday — the dignity, the solemnity, the pageantry, if you will. But it's not about entertaining people, it's about worshiping God, along with the tradition and continuity of the faith throughout the ages."
Spot on.
In a "liturgical aid" issued to clerics participating "in choir" there is an interesting note which touches on something I have been talking about ever since Summorum Pontificum was issued in 2007.
""All priests are welcome to attend. This wonderful celebration is an opportunity to experience beautiful music in its intended spiritual setting, but also to be immersed in the rich symbolism of the Tridentine Mass. It is the Archbishop's hope that this event will serve as a means for "mutual enrichment," as Pope Benedict XVI has noted, between the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of the Roman Rite. By becoming more familiar with and deeply rooted in the Mass of the 1962 Missale Romanum, we can better understand the Missale Romanum of Pope Paul VI and its accompanying ars celebrandi."
The provisions of Summorum Pontificum are needed today not just to promote the wide-spread use of the pre-Conciliar forms, but also to teach those who use mainly the Novus Ordo something about a proper ars celebrandi consistent with our Roman tradition, our Catholic identity.
In other words, as one of my correspondents put it, "the last sentence (in the quote above) crystallizes Pope Benedict's primary reason Summorum Pontificum — to rescue the Mass of Paul VI from the 'deformations' to which it has almost universally been subjected."
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