Liturgical news notes

Tridentine Community News (March 22, 2009):

St. Josaphat Makes the Front Page of the Detroit News

On Friday, March 13, the Detroit News ran a story on its front page about Traditional Catholic worship. The paper had sent a reporter, photographer, and videographer to our Masses on the previous two Sundays. If you didn’t see the newspaper, the story is available for (paid) viewing on-line at www.detnews.com. Search for “Josephat” [sic – the writer misspelled it]. Be sure to watch the video and look at the additional photos.

Following the press coverage that Assumption-Windsor received in November in the Windsor Star newspaper and on CBC Radio, this marks the third time that mainstream media outlets have recently covered our local Tridentine Mass scene.

Tridentine Mass Presentation at Orchard Lake Seminary

Orchard Lake’s Ss. Cyril & Methodius Seminary has followed in the footsteps of London, Ontario’s St. Peter’s Seminary in exposing their seminarians to the Classic Liturgy: Last Monday, March 16, Seminary Vice Rector Fr. Miroslaw Król invited a team from St. Josaphat to give a presentation on the Extraordinary Form of Holy Mass to his Liturgy class. Seminarians heard a brief talk on the resurgence of the Tridentine Mass. An explanatory walk-through of the Mass was then conducted at the high altar of the Shrine Chapel.

Presentations such as this help to dispel the myth that the Extraordinary Form is intimidating. With a little guidance, celebrating the Tridentine Mass is no more complicated than driving a car. Seminarians should be made aware that they may very well be asked to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass in their parish assignments, in accordance with the terms of our Holy Father’s Motu Proprio, Summórum Pontíficum.

Shrine Mass Instructive to Many

This past Wednesday, March 18, Royal Oak’s National Shrine of the Little Flower held an historic Solemn High Tridentine Mass as part of their Lenten Wednesday Liturgy series. Readers of this column who attended the Mass felt quite at home: Msgr. George Browne, Deacon Richard Bloomfield, and Fr. Peter Hrytsyk were at the altar, assisted by a joint group of St. Josaphat and Assumption-Windsor’s altar servers and choir members.

Over 500 people attended, attracted in part, no doubt, by the article that Shrine pastor Msgr. William Easton wrote in the March 15 edition of their parish bulletin, available on-line at www.shrinechurch.com. Fifteen Red Missals were sold, and the choir received several compliments, both encouraging signs of newfound interest in the Traditional Liturgy.

A story and additional photos were posted on The New Liturgical Movement blog, at: www.newliturgicalmovement.org, and positive reactions were posted on Catholic Answers’ Forum. It was an honor for our communities to be invited to participate in such an event.

Special Tridentine Mass this Wednesday, March 25

As part of Fr. Borkowski’s plan to hold sung Tridentine Masses on First Class Feasts, St. Josaphat Church will have a Missa Cantata this Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00 PM for the Feast of the Annunciation. Attending this and upcoming Masses will help integrate the liturgical calendar of Holy Mother Church more closely into our thinking and daily lives.

Attention: Pioneers From Villa Maria Days

A side note to those of our readers who attended metro Detroit’s only Tridentine Mass at Windsor’s Villa Maria Nursing Home Chapel up through 2003: Remember when there were only about 15 of us? Could anyone have predicted the level of interest in the Traditional Mass that we are now witnessing? Our region has truly been blessed with remarkable growth.

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for March 22, 2009. Hat tip to A.B.]