|
|
|
Every week or so IgnatiusInsight.com will ask a question
or two of Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder of Ignatius Press and Chancellor
of Ave Maria
University in Naples, Florida since 2002. If you have a question about
the Catholic Church, Ignatius Press, or current events you would like
to ask Fr. Fessio, please send it to IgnatiusInsight.com
editor Carl Olson and he will consider asking Fr. Fessio to respond
to it.
The question for the week of August 1, 2004, is:
Can you tell me why the Latin Tridentine Mass
is not celebrated at Ave Maria College. I attended the Novus Order Latin
Mass at Ave
Maria University at Naples Florida this past February and was extremely
disappointed in the Novus Order Mass. It is a pale comparison to the beauty
and meaning of the historical Tridentine Mass. I am surprised that Father
Fessio does not seek permission for a weekly Tridentine Mass.
Fr. Fessio: Thank you for your question regarding the celebration
of the Indult Mass at Ave Maria University.
Right now we have a student body of 300 - although we believe it is going to be growing rapidly.
There are two Masses per day and I celebrate the Mass in Latin twice during weekdays and a
sung High Mass on Sunday mornings. It is not the Indult Mass for which we need special permission
from the Bishop; this is the Novus Ordo Mass celebrated in Latin, with Gregorian Chant,
facing East, and using the Roman Canon. In fact, I have called this the "Mass of Vatican II" because
I believe it corresponds very closely to what the Council anticipated in liturgical reform.
The Lord has been blessing us immensely in the number of students who have already responded to
the vision of Ave Maria University. Therefore we believe we will be expanding rapidly in years
to come. Perhaps when we have more students and priests, at our new permanent campus - and provided
of course that the Bishop will give permission--we may add the Indult Mass, the so called "Tridentine"
Latin Mass.
In the meantime, I would like the students to experience the new Mass with the Ordinary (unchanging parts)
in Latin and celebrated with as few as possible changes from the previous pre-Conciliar Mass. It is
very, very close to the Tridentine Mass, especially when the Roman Canon is used. I even think that
had this Mass been available - as it was intended to be available Ð many of those who have sought the
restoration of the Tridentine Mass would have not been so dissatisfied with the liturgical reform which
the Council had intended.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Church Fathers and Teachers: From Leo The Great to Peter Lombard
by Pope Benedict XVI
Also available as an E-Book
After meditating on the Apostles and then on the Fathers of the early Church, as seen in his earlier works Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church and
Church Fathers, Pope Benedict XVI devoted his attention to the most influential
Christian men from the fifth through the twelfth centuries. In his first book, Church Fathers, Benedict
began with Clement of Rome and ended with Saint Augustine. In this volume, the Holy Father reflects on some of the greatest theologians of the Middle Ages: Benedict, Anselm,
Bernard, and Gregory the Great, to name just a few. By exploring both the lives and the ideas of the great popes, abbots, scholars and missionaries who lived during the fall
of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christendom, Pope Benedict XVI highlights the key elements of Catholic dogma and practice that remain the foundation stones not only of
the Roman Catholic Church but of Christian society itself. This book is a wonderful way to get to know these later Church Fathers and Teachers and the tremendous spiritually
rich patrimony they have bequeathed to us.
|
|
|
|
