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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

IF ONLY, IF ONLY!!!! BUT THAT'S WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE!




This is a humble Italian parish celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Please note how well the congregation participates in all the responses both spoken and sung. This is actual participation and what Vatican II sought for the renewal of the Mass. THIS MASS IS IN THE BLOOD OF THIS CONGREGATION, IT IS A PART OF THEM AS THIS FORM OF THE MASS WAS ONCE A PART OF ALL CATHOLICS IN THE LATIN RITE UNTIL THE DISRUPTION.

If only we had focused on what this congregation does for the past 50 years, would we be in the turmoil we are in now liturgically and otherwise? Please note how comfortable the congregation is with the passage of time and the great silences of the EF Mass. IF ONLY...oh well.

And this Italian priest sings and says the Latin sounding a great deal like I do! You've got to love us Italians.

Please read Shawn Tribe's intro to this:

Feast of St. Rocco in Val Vigezzo
by Shawn Tribe

Speaking personally, I always enjoy seeing liturgies celebrated in different places in the world, particularly festal liturgies which involve processions as it provides a real opportunity to look for local customs and traditions -- as well as shared customs and traditions.

I came across these videos on Messainlatino.it which show the celebration of the feast of St. Rocco on August 19th in the church of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria in Val Vigezzo, Italy and thought some of our readers might be interested in them. The Mass was celebrated by Don Alberto Secci who has been shown on NLM before -- though not by name (see image above).


Here is a video taken from the Mass:

3 comments:

Jacob said...

Beautiful video. This is the mass I attend every Sunday and the only mass my children have attended. We are so very fortunate that all the craziness of the last 40 years hasn't touched us at my parish.

Rood Screen said...

This is why every priest of the Latin Church should offer the traditional form of Mass frequently, at least on Sundays and solemn feasts, so that each parish can develop just such a core group of congregants. If only a majority of priests will do it, good things will happen.

John Nolan said...

This was the Missa Cantata as celebrated every Sunday in most English parishes up to 1964 when things started to unravel. Congregation belting out the Asperges and Missa de Angelis. No trained schola, so most of the Propers psalm-toned (although here they made a good fist of the Introit 'Gaudeamus'). A couple of hymns, well-known Latin ones including Ave Verum Corpus, which would not be beyond the capabilities of any congregation. Plenty of opportunities to sing vernacular hymns in the procession which followed.

Yet you still hear people who ought to know better saying that pre-Vatican II congregations were silent spectators. This is much more true nowadays when virtually no-one attempts to join in as the folk group churns out its sentimental and repetitive drivel week after week.

I could weep when I consider that for the vast majority of English-speaking Catholics a Mass like the one in the video would be totally outside its experience and comprehension.