Dear friends. I’d like to share with you an experience I had today at Mass. The prayers of the faithful consisted of the following: “We pray for the intentions of the Pope” - I remained silent - (you must be joking - I prayed for the Pope, but not for his new-age intentions). “We give thanks for our wonderful climate” - I remained silent (in the past I’d have given thanks, but being thankful for equal amounts of rain and sun, and no extreme temperatures is what I understood this to mean in the past - this prayer now is something different entirely post the “sham-is-on” synod. “We thank God for the earth below us, the sky above us, the mountains before us” - I remained silent (inwardly screaming). Is this just in my parish? There was also a newsletter in the church (just the normal local newsletter with anniversaries and some reflections on the readings), with the reflections talking about how those in irregular marriages used to be excluded from the Eucharist in the past. (Used to be???!!!). My peace was destroyed in Mass today. Again, most there were silver haired. No alter servers, with the bells rung by an old man. Of the three priests in the parish (two in 80s, one in 60s) only the 60 year old is able to say Mass this week, the others are sick, (God help those wonderful gentlemen). The church, for the first time ever, looked like a dying entity today, rambling about mother-earth nonsense. It’s heartbreaking.
But the mass remains the mass such a great gift! At mass about a week ago I felt the Lord telling me in prayer, 'Don't be taking things for granted!' I searched my conscience wondering what He meant and thought at once of the incredible Gift of the Eucharist. When we go to mass we get two huge gifts, the Eucharist and the word of God. I usually go to the Latin Mass on Sunday afternoons, but this morning I went to 7am mass at Clonard Monastery. It's a place were I have heard, I am afraid, some very suspect homilies in the past, but a very holy place indeed. I was delighted when a priest emerged to say mass of great personal holiness and wisdom and preached on the Subject of Gratitude. Today's Readings of course where on the subject of Gratitude. Ten lepers were healed but only one returned to say, 'Thanks'. The Father quoted one Spiritual Author who said that Sanctity can be defined simply as Gratitude. The more grateful we are the more holy we are and vice versa. What a beautiful way of looking at it. After mass I walked over to the Sacred Heart Shrine and looked at the Words written in large letters of Gold over it. 'Behold this heart that has so loved men'... Then it suddenly struck me like a pain the heart that the whole message concerned not being grateful. Of taking things for granted and I understood that the Holy Spirit was knocking on the Door of My Heart to remind me. He was continually telling me the same thing over and over. "Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat Me thus. Therefore, I ask of you that the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a special Feast to honor My Heart, by communicating on that day, and making reparation to It by a solemn act, in order to make amends for the indignities which It has received during the time It has been exposed on the altars. I promise you that My Heart shall expand Itself to shed in abundance the influence of Its Divine Love upon those who shall thus honor It, and cause It to be honored.”
One thing at mass that made me really wince was the thought of how ungrateful I was a teenager and a young man to my poor parents. Thinking of such ingratitude makes me tremble a little to Face the Judgement Seat of God . But I have so much to rely on the Mercy of God that one more memory of terrible guilt only makes me count even more on God's Mercy. At St Faustina was told by Jesus the greater the sinner the Greater the Gift of Mercy is given. But one memory came to console . One day I was sitting with my parents and my father apoligised for not having and money to give or leave me. Now my Father had been a Wealthy Businessman but had lost everything when he was imprisoned without Court or Trial, interned by the British on account of his politics. But at once I told them they had given me the greatest gift of all. The Gift of Faith. That is everything and money means nothing. So true. At least for once I showed true gratitude and this memory always cheers me up.
I truly think in the next few years the Mass of Ages will be spreading far and wide. It has grown immensely in the past few years.
I remember when Dr. Taylor Marshall met Pope Francis and showed him his book he told Francis he prayed for his holy intentions. This was on FB and of course he got comments about this, but he said I told him I pray for his "holy" intentions. Well it helps me to say his holy intentions.
Yes! Spot on Sam. Your right. I remember that show and that comment. But there’s been so much bad fruit from our current Pope, that I’ve firmly tossed in the towel with him. I pray for his conversion only now. I wouldn’t trust his intentions after even a half bottle of whiskey at this stage.
Please God!!! I’ve heard there may be one about 30 mins away, I’m looking into it. One way or another, the NO Mass is on its last legs, thank God.
Do you attend on regularly? Do you have to travel far? What country are you in? I’ve never been. I was deprived/robbed of it by the Vat II hippies.
I’m in Maryland, US, and I can get to a TLM in about 40 minutes. I go to my parish with my family on Sunday which is NO, but I have been trying to get to a TLM once a week as a daily Mass. There should be a website with locations of local Latin Masses in your area. Just start typing and searching. In the US, and probably elsewhere, the missal dates from 1962. I think that is standard now. You will love it. They probably have missals available for use. Let us know what you find out.
I'm in the U.S. we have a lovely Latin Mass about an hour away. It is growing and spreading though, so I think most areas in the Western world should have one in the next few years. In any case I think most of us will have to get used to traveling to get to a good priest whatever Mass we go to if this divide in the Church keeps developing the way it is. Soon they may be putting up "Earth-mother" statues in front of the altar or some such nonsense. Then we will need to travel a distance to find a good church to attend. If you type in "find Latin Mass" into your web browser, lots of different sites will come up listing where to find the nearest Latin Mass. Most of them list only the Latin Masses in communion with Rome. A few of them list sedevacantist churches too though so be careful. If they say "diocese", FSSP, or SSPX you are fine. The Vatican has now declared the faithful may attend SSPX Masses. If the Mass is listed as CMRI, SSPV, or "independent" avoid it as this means it is a sedevacantist church not in communion with Rome.
Actually, Just this afternoon I chatted with relatives about the very point you raise in your post - it’s now more likely than not that at some point after the “sham-is-on synod” p, a status of pachamama or mother-earth idol will be displayed at some altars in some churches. We all decided today we will walk out of the church if this happens. I will research Latin masses in SE Ireland over the coming days. I’ll post the results here in case other Catholics local to me are interested.
I was blessed to be able to see Patrick Madrid last night when he came to my city to speak at a fundraiser for the local Catholic radio station. In the Q and A afterward I got the chance to ask him how we can be sure to be part of the remnant church spoken of in various prophecies. His reply was simple, just three things from Fatima over and over: Pray the Rosary daily, frequent confession, frequent reception of the Eucharist.
I know MC we live in difficult times, but as I said the Latin Mass is growing by leaps and bounds. Don't lose heart. The past is coming around again. The youth movement is mostly very traditional.
I love this song . . .always enjoyed Allison Kraus. This is one of the songs I play on my hammered dulcimer, an old Shaker song.
It looks like your choices for TLM are 5 p.m. in Kilkenny: https://www.patricksparish.com/masstimes.html Depending on how close you live to the N11, the SSPX in Dun Laoghaire might be easier to get to although their Sunday Masses are at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.: https://fsspx.ie/en/stjohns I've been to three Traditional Latin Masses in St. Kevin's, Harrington St., Dublin, one on a First Friday, one on a Sunday and one on a Holy Day: https://www.dublindiocese.ie/parish/harrington-street/ Everything there is very reverential with all the bells and smells, etc. For some reasons that I can't really explain, I came away with the impression that regular Ordinary Form Sunday Mass in St. Saviour's, Dominick St. in Dublin city centre is just as reverential if not more so than the TLM on that Sunday. I was young and religion wasn't top of my list of priorities when the new Mass was introduced, but my memory of the old days is that the priest could make a difference to the reverence of the Mass. I wonder sometimes whether the Bishop has an influence on the theme of homilies with the orthodoxy of the priest determining how that theme is developed in the homily. There are probably very good, orthodox priests offering the Ordinary Form of the Mass in parishes closer to you. If so, going to Mass in one of those parishes could be an easier option for you. I'm very fortunate for now to have the option of Mass in the Dominican church. How long that lasts remains to be seen. The Dominican Order has a new Superior or Father General and I'm not sure how much a Superior's views infiltrate down through the different communities of the Order. The new Superior is Filipino. My internet search on him didn't fill me with hope. Some years ago he was invited to give a talk to a Jesuit community. That talk was real Pope Francis speak, and after that the Pope put him on some Vatican Committee. With that in mind, I'm considering that Silverstream Priory could be an option for me, although I fear it would be too far for you. There is a Traditional Latin Mass Society in Ireland. Maybe if you get in touch with them they might be aware of others in your neck of the woods who have shown an interest in the TLM. If there are enough people interested in it, the Bishop might be more amenable to making the TLM available in one of the bigger towns like Wexford.
