Last Sunday, 'im indoors and I heard an appeal from the pulpit at Mass for parishioners to take part in a Rosary Crusade on behalf of the unborn:
- To pray at least five decades of the Rosary daily
- To offer intentional sacrifices
- For the special protection of Mary over New Zealand, especially for the unborn and the elderly
- For the defeat of the Abortion Legislation Bill and the End of Life Choices Bill
- For the conversion of sinners
- And the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in New Zealand.
WOT???
You're making it up, I hear you say. Some more enlightened readers, on getting as far as "the conversion of sinners" might have guessed: 'im indoors and had I entered that den of iniquity, the SSPX, at St Anthony's Priory Whanganui, for High Mass at 9 a m.
Among other things, we were treated to:
- A very nearly full church, following a Low Mass at 7 a m and another Low Mass at 11 a m.
- A written sermon which would have taken up 2 A4 pages, cogent, constructed and brimful of doctrine, based on the Gospel as it should always be
- The dearest little altar boys (and big ones too), who with hands clasped genuflected every time they passed the tabernacle
- Silence before Mass and after (except for babies crying, but only once or twice)
- 9 statues (not counting the angels kneeling either side of the altar) each with an arrangement of florist's flowers
- Women and girls all wearing hats or mantillas and dresses or skirts
- A lengthy notice in the foyer stating the DRESS CODE ('No ripped jeans No jeans. No necklines lower than two fingers below the collarbone' etc
- A shorter notice on a pew at the back which announced simply, 'Confessional Queue'
- Families with children so close in age that except for the babes in arms they might have been quintuplets
- A choir, not up front performing but hidden from view in a choir loft
- A consummate organist, who was self-effacing during the Mass, and let 'er rip in a beautiful voluntary after the Recessional hymn
- 5 pews of nuns in full habit with novices in front
In how many other Catholic churches tomorrow will we hear a plea for the unborn, for a request to make submissions to Parliament on this horrific Bill which if passed will inevitably lead to infanticide, let alone a call to pray the Rosary and make 'intentional sacrifices'?
We can place ads in newspapers, we can stuff letterboxes with pamphlets, we can hold meetings and write letters to the paper, but none of it will avail us or God's little ones anything, unless we pray and fast.
Our Blessed Lord reminded the Apostles that for certain devils a mere exorcism is not enough and "there is no way of casting out such spirits as this except by prayer and fasting." (Mt. 17:20)
Lol! Love the headline Julia 😉 Day by day more and more Catholics are looking into Tradition and the group/Archbishop who saw the ‘Reforms’ for what they always were - a revolt from Christ and His Church. My wife and I are so grateful for having found them a couple of years back and can’t wait to soak it all up when in two weeks time we move to Whanganui to be part of it all. Deo gratias!
Anonymous says:
Who, I wonder, are those in schism with God? Not these folks, I'm guessing.
Bob Gill says:
And with Rome wanting to convert the SSPX to their modernism, I believe we have z difficult road ahead.
Monica Devine says:
The underground unapproved Church.
Lol! Love the headline Julia 😉 Day by day more and more Catholics are looking into Tradition and the group/Archbishop who saw the ‘Reforms’ for what they always were - a revolt from Christ and His Church. My wife and I are so grateful for having found them a couple of years back and can’t wait to soak it all up when in two weeks time we move to Whanganui to be part of it all. Deo gratias!
Anonymous says:
Come to the Cathedral Julia. There you will get social
justice and climate change. And often there is not even a priest. SSPX
cant compete with that.
Philippa O'Neill says:
Love it! Spot on!
Anonymous says:
Good work. Those NOs (people attending the Novus Ordo or 'New Mass')who still have reservations about SSPX are neglecting to examine the matters you highlight, the essential Catholicity. Even Pope Francis has acted to endorse SSPX by comments on their Masses, confessions, and marriages. I suspect that NOs who manifest reservations are actually hostile, because they know the SSPX will drag them back to real Catholicism, not social masqueration.
Anonymous says:
Good work. Those NOs (people attending the Novus Ordo or 'New Mass')who still have reservations about SSPX are neglecting to examine the matters you highlight, the essential Catholicity. Even Pope Francis has acted to endorse SSPX by comments on their Masses, confessions, and marriages. I suspect that NOs who manifest reservations are actually hostile, because they know the SSPX will drag them back to real Catholicism, not social masqueration.
Carry on please.
Paul Collits says:
Who, I wonder, are those in schism with God? Not these folks, I'm guessing.
Bob Gill says:
And with Rome wanting to convert the SSPX to their modernism, I believe we have z difficult road ahead.
Monica Devine says:
The underground unapproved Church.
Bravo, well said.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn my parish church this morning the homily was about Fathers' Day and quantum physics. Nothing about the Gospel.
ReplyDeleteFather wouldn't mention the matter of urgency on submissions to Parliament on the horrific Abortion Legislation Bill. Or the Voice for Life meeting on Wednesday with Lawrence Yule, MP for Tuki Tuki, where we expect him to explain why he voted not just for this Bill but the End of Life Choice Bill.
"It's all in the newsletter," said Father.
(To be fair to Yule, Maggie Barry told me he's changed his mind on euthanasia. He was on my list of MPs To Pray For. Deo gratias.)
I'm intrigued about your description of this Mass. I would love to attend sometime, although it would be a long journey from Wellington. I attend my local church, it has a great sense of community, but very little tradition following.
ReplyDeleteI used to be an altar boy before Vatican II and with all your talk, Julia, memories flooded back on how things used to be. I’m thinking mainly about the uniformity and reverence of the Mass being celebrated wherever you went.
ReplyDeleteAnd 5 pews of nuns in full habit – something I haven’t seen since the late 1970s at the old Sacred Heart church in Hastings. I would be in awe of that spectacle!
On the occasional trip from Dannevirke to New Plymouth I have been tempted to divert and visit the SSPX Wanganui church to see what it’s all about. Your description, Julia, tells me it’s the real deal! I will now look forward to a visit in the near future.
Go Bob!
ReplyDeleteChaucey, S.S.P.X. offer Mass at 32 Beauchamp Street, Linden, every Sunday at 9:30am.
ReplyDeleteYou would be welcome.
Thank you, Leo. I was this very evening hunting down the details of the Wellington SSPX Mass. A private home in Wellington, a funeral parlour in Napier: are these appropriate venues for the Usus Antiquior, the Traditional Latin Mass which sustained the Holy, Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church until the Second Vatican Council got mismothered?
ReplyDeleteHi Julia, thanks for your post! I will forward this link to our Priests here in Wanganui to help encourage them in this terrible crisis we are in at the moment. Our family grew up going to the Novus Ordo in Auckland and when I was about 15 we were introduced to the Traditional Mass by some friends. Where was this all our life?! We never looked back (and never went to the Novus Ordo again) and eventually moved to Wanganui for the Traditional Mass, solid sermons, a good Catholic parish life and also so the grandkids can go to a Catholic school that teaches the authentic Traditional Catholic Faith.
ReplyDeleteIf people really look into the arguments (from Canon Law) of the SSPX on why the "excommunications" of the 6 Bishops were never valid, and the argument for supplied jurisdiction (again from Canon Law) - there is and has never been a valid reason why a person cannot attend Sacraments administered by an SSPX Bishop/Priest. And if you read the Life of Archbishop Lefebvre you will realise he will surely be canonised a Saint once the dust settles after this very sad time in the Church we are in. The SSPX has never been accused of heresy (and believe me, the many of the authorities in the Church would be very vocal if they could ever accuse them of anything in that regard, based on how they have been treated by many of those higher up in the Church.)
Anyway, thanks again very much for your post! And you are more than welcome to come again!
God bless!
Francis
Paul Collits says: Moving to Wanganui is commitment.
DeleteJulie, this is spot on! I also attend the SSPX Mass in Wanganui and I would never again return to the Novus Ordo which I grew up with, devoid of reverence and decorum. The Real Presence of our Crucified Lord was never apparent or honoured in the Novus ordo of my childhood. My 7 children are blessed to attend the most amazing, orthodox Catholic school which does not compromise the faith passed on from the apostles. And furthermore, they love their interaction and direction from faithful Priests, Nuns and Brothers. We will never move out of Whanganui, our Church here and school is like a slice of heaven.
ReplyDeleteGod bless, Marie
Chaucey, have you been to the Mass at Linden ?
ReplyDelete