Mass attendance

Folks, today, after attending my regular Holy Mass this morning, in which I had the privilege of acting as a reader, I attended a private celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Holy Mass later in the afternoon. By so doing, I became one of the masses of people who attended this form of the Latin Liturgy worldwide, after the Holy Father extended the permission to celebrate this extraordinary form of the Mass to every validly ordained priest of the Roman, Latin Rite. I can't be sure, but this might have been the very first Sunday Mass of the kind celebrated in our diocese in decades. I took the picture on the right as Fr. Ananias Buccione, OSB, Pastor of Our Lady, Queen of Peace Parish in Patton, Pennsylvania, elevated the Precious Blood at Consecration, as a veteran altar server assisted. I used my camera phone; click on the picture to make it larger.

As a Catholic, I love each and every single aspect of our Holy Tradition: well-celebrated Paul VI Masses (novus ordo so-called), the Traditional Latin Mass, Byzantine, Coptic, liturgies; organ or guitar (or both! But only in the "new" Mass) it doesn't matter to me. Christ comes to me, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity just the same. I've never, in my life as a Catholic, have I been left spiritually starved.

Now, I wanted to make a point to attend this one today to demonstrate my desire to embrace this aspect of our Tradition and to welcome it once again to our local diocesan Church. I will attend it extraordinarily, as I will continue attending the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, well, ordinarily, pun unintended.

Deo gratias.