March 2008 Print

Mysticism. I don't like the word nor what it has come to mean. A wise priest told me that "mysticism" usually begins with mist and ends with schism.

In any case, Archbishop Lefebvre was neither misty nor schismatic. He proves it in The Mass of All Time, the newest book published by Angelus Press. It is constructed of 326 pages in two parts. The first is all Archbishop Lefebvre said about the Holy Sacrifice arranged smartly as running commentary in parallel with the Mass. The second is his firm analysis of the Novus Ordo Mass. Fr. Christopher Pieroni is reading the book to his fifth- and sixth-grade catechism students: "I read about the Te Igitur. It's inspiring to these guys. On the New Mass, the Archbishop is strong without being arrogant." A Novus Ordo priest ministering in New Jersey wrote: "Thanks for sending me the Archbishop's excellent book on the Mass. It is very inspiring and the many details are most informative."

On the Libera Nos of the Mass (pp. 137-38) where we ask to be delivered from evil, Archbishop Lefebvre includes the poem, "The Three Against the Other" (Jacques Debout), in which Satan, railing against Our Lord, himself expresses the value of a single Mass. A cocky demon asks of Satan, "What can God use against us? What can God do?" to which the Devil replies:

God stops us dead with the eternal Mass

Which crushed my head, and snatches every day

Souls living and dead from underneath my sway.

In the true life of nations hidden from view,

All Masses said are revolutions true

Which are, for being unseen, the more profound

And wreak such change as turns whole worlds around.

Going far beyond the missal or its priest,

Worldwide effects are by each Mass released;

And when some obstacle stops me in my track,

I know that in some church, or barn, or shack

A poor weak man held up that Sacred Sign

Of untold dread for me–the Host and Wine.

Great stuff for priests and laity alike to remember.

 

Here's a notable endorsement. Una Voce New York introduced a lengthy excerpt about feminism from Iota Unum (which Angelus Press distributes) saying:

...[O]ne of the most impressive critiques of the conciliar Church yet penned. Iota Unum [is] an encyclopedic study that reveals the breathtaking dimensions of the destruction wrought by the Second Vatican Council and those who have implemented it these 40 unhappy years.

Last week, the EWTN Library bought 200 copies of our True Devotion: Consecration to Mary and a Novus Ordo parish in Maryland purchased 250 copies of the 1962 Roman Catholic Missal Booklet. But, the news that takes the cake has to be this letter written to Angelus Press:

Forty years ago or so, when the Church adopted the New Mass, I felt shocked and betrayed. That an institution which supposedly prided itself on its rich and timeless heritage and tradition should abandon such a large part of it in one stroke. I subsequently tried other churches (primarily Lutherans as their service and music seemed the closest) but none provided a substitute for the spiritual significance and symbolic beauty of the Latin Rite Mass....I never got very far away from the Church, though. I am, by trade, a physics teacher at a performing arts high school in ... but have been a performing musician for most of my 60 years. The musical forms that I have specialized in have been very Church-related–Mahler symphonies, Wagner operas, Bach and Handel cantatas and oratories, Masses and Requeims of all the great and less-than-great composers, and miscellaneous works spanning the entire history of Catholic liturgical music.

Several weeks ago I hit upon the St. John Cantius website and began reading up on the resurgent interest and availability of the [1962] Roman Rite Mass. I discovered to my amazement a Catholic church less than a mile and a half from my home has an 8am Latin High Mass every Sunday and Day of Obligation. I immediately ordered your Daily Missal from the church website which arrived in time for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

Simply put, the experience of attending the Latin Rite Mass again, augmented by your incredibly beautiful Missal has been responsible for transformation in my life. The long spiritual void in my life had made me a virtual atheist, but participating once again in what I have always believed is the most aesthetically and spiritually beautiful and uplifting religious ritual has restored my faith to a degree that I would have found difficult to comprehend less that a month ago.

I have to mention how impressed I was with your, literally, awesome Missal; both its physical and liturgical quality and value are beyond measure. I never realized such a comprehensive daily Missal for lay Catholics had ever existed. (The St. Joseph Daily Missal dominated the US market back in the 50's.) I have been reading it daily. I have subsequently ordered the Missal cover which is most helpful, and your Traditional Hymnal; I am seriously considering the reprint of Know Your Mass. (I remember it so well from my altar boy days.) Deepest thanks and may Christ bless you all!

(Luke 15:10, anybody?)

By the way, the writer of this letter is referring to the same Know Your Mass that's finding its way into the priests' instructional kit distributed by another Latin Mass society.

 

The feature story in the February 2008 issue of The Angelus on US Army Chaplain, Capt. Fr. Emil Kapaun, Servant of God, seems to have aroused some interest in his progress toward canonization. This leads me to inform readers of the official prayer being circulated with the ecclesiastical approval of the Wichita Diocese to that end:

O Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of the folly of war, Thy servant, Chaplain Emil Kapaun, spent himself in total service to Thee on the battlefields and in the prison camps of Korea until his death at the hands of his captors. We now ask of Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, if it be Thy will, to make known to all the world the holiness of Thy priest, Fr. Kapaun, and the glory of his complete sacrifice for Thee, by signs of miracles and peace. In Thy Name, O Lord, we ask this, for Thou art the Source of peace, the Strength of our service to others, and our Final Hope. Amen.

Instaurare Omnia in Christo,

Fr. Kenneth Novak