Extraordinary Community News: Interesting Books on Sacred Liturgy, and St. Albertus Mass Mob

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News (August 17, 2014):

Interesting Books by Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Fr. Uwe-Michael Lang, and Fr. Jonathan Robinson

Over the past ten years, a few notable books have been published that stand out as worthwhile reads for Catholics who have an interest in traditional liturgy:

Raymond Cardinal Burke is perhaps the most outspoken advocate of Sacred Tradition among the current Princes of the Church. His track record of supporting the Extraordinary Form by attending Latin Mass conferences, celebrating the Mass at high-profile public events, and performing ordinations has no equal. From his initial invitation of the Institute of Christ the King to establish their first apostolate in North America while he was Bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin, to his ordination of priests for the Institute just last week in St. Louis, Missouri, Cardinal Burke travels the world to give encouragement and hope to those who prefer the Tridentine Mass. In July, 2012, during his annual talk at the Fota Liturgy Conference in Cork, Ireland, His Eminence announced the publication of his book, Divine Love Made Flesh: The Holy Eucharist as the Sacrament of Charity.A relatively slim volume of 200 pages, the book addresses why the Eucharist must be central to the life of every Catholic because of its transformative role. His Eminence also discusses, in straightforward and easily understandable language, why our worship must be reverent, and why adoration should be a key spiritual practice.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider is an Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Astana, Kazakhstan. He is known in metro Detroit as a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, the religious community whose members include local Tridentine Mass celebrants Fr. Wolfgang Seitz, Fr. Matthew Hincks, and Fr. Titus Kieninger. Bishop Schneider is best known internationally for his 60 page 2009 book, Dominus Est – It Is the Lord! Reflections of a Bishop of Central Asia on Holy Communion,a defense of the traditional practice of distributing Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue. Malcom Cardinal Ranjith, also known for his liturgical orthodoxy, wrote the preface. Bishop Schneider has traveled extensively speaking on this subject, including at a Call to Holiness conference locally a few years ago. After reading this book, one can reasonably conclude that many of the Church’s problems could be remedied by returning to more traditional practices of distributing Holy Communion, as the pervasive visual example and experience of such practices can do more to promote belief in the Real Presence than words could.

Fr. Uwe-Michael Lang is another familiar face on the liturgical conference circuit. A young priest of the London’s Brompton Oratory, Fr. Lang has spoken at C.I.E.L. conferences in the U.K., at Sacra Liturgia in Rome, and just last month taught a summer course at The Liturgical Institute at Chicago’s Mundelein Seminary. He served as a staff member on the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship. When in London he is a regular celebrant of the Oratory’s various Masses and Vespers services. In 2005, Fr. Lang published Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer,a book which advocates ad oriéntem celebration of the Mass, the traditional orientation where priest and people face the same direction, facing our Lord on the altar. Fr. Lang’s follow-up work, 2012’s The Voice of the Church at Prayer: Reflections on Liturgy and Language,addresses the importance of sacral language, both in the new English translation of the Ordinary Form, and in the resurging popularity of employing Latin in the Ordinary Form. Both books clearly draw on Fr. Lang’s experience celebrating and assisting at the exemplary Ordinary and Extraordinary Form liturgies at the London Oratory.

Fr. Jonathan Robinson, Founder and Superior of the Toronto Oratory and celebrant of the Windsor Tridentine Community’s 20th Anniversary Mass in 2011, wrote 2005’s The Mass and Modernity: Walking to Heaven Backward,which seeks to explain the current state of Catholic Liturgy and solutions for returning reverence to the Mass. As with Fr. Lang, Fr. Robinson draws on his extensive experience overseeing solemn liturgies at the Oratory and its affiliated seminary.

St. Albertus Filled to Capacity for Detroit Mass Mob


Last Sunday, August 10, the Detroit Mass Mob attended the 11:00 AM Ordinary Form Mass at St. Albertus Church. For the first time possibly in its entire history, the enormous church was filled to capacity. Approximately 2,500 people were estimated to have been in attendance, standing room only. Those of us who attend St. Albertus’ monthly Tridentine Masses should be delighted to see this stunning church, and more importantly the dedicated people who maintain it, getting some well-deserved attention, not to mention a sizable collection to help maintain the edifice. Let us pray that a few of the newcomers return for next Sunday’s Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form. [Photo by the Archdiocese of Detroit]

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 08/18 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Joseph (St. Agapitus, Martyr)
• Tue. 08/19 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Benedict/Assumption-Windsor (St. John Eudes, Confessor)
• Sun. 08/24 12:00 Noon: High Mass at St. Albertus (Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and Assumption (Windsor) bulletin inserts for August 17, 2014. Hat tip to A.B., author of the column.]