Under the Tinfoil Mantilla

Editor’s Note: This guest post was to be posted at the time Mass was shut down due to Covid. Somehow it got saved as a draft instead. But it’s good to read it in retrospect.

This post was written by a guest blogger who goes by the name of Blessed Mother Blue

Now many clouds have a silver lining. The one I see in regards to the closing of public Catholic Mass due to the Covid, I thought I’d share with you.

I used to attend daily Mass, and at the Mass I would read the readings for the Mass from my Magnificat (a small monthly magazine with all the Novus Ordo Masses for the month). It is quite good. And I had also developed a series of methods to keep me focused on the holiness of the Mass.

First, my Magnificat I filled with pictures (printed from my computer) of the spiritual dimensions of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to keep me focused on what was truly spiritually occurring during the Mass. (For example, we are joined by the saints and angels in heaven; the souls in purgatory receive help; and we are in a certain sense, present ourselves at Calvary).

Second, I veiled my head for Our Lord, present in the Holy Eucharist, out of reverence for His Presence, and as a sign of my belief in His Real Presence.(I’ve also heard that a woman’s skirt is a veil for her uterus, which is a holy place because God begins new human life there.)

Third, I tried to be as reverent as possible, including a full genuflection toward the tabernacle (with knee to the floor, back straight, and facing the tabernacle), whenever I entered or left the church or passed in front of the tabernacle.

Fourth, I would avoid looking at the priest, who nearly always had his back to Our Lord in the tabernacle (!) and instead was facing us, and seemed to be speaking the prayers of the Mass to us in the pews. Here the pictures I kept in my Magnificat helped me remember that the priest was supposed to be Persona Christi, offering to God His Father His own Body and Blood, in an unbloody way at the Mass, for our salvation. And we in the pews were to be uniting ourselves with him spiritually in our hearts.

However, it was a challenge: not infrequently the priest would add personal dialogue to the Mass, change the Mass words, omit words (or whole prayers) and/or utter the words with indifference; usually it was some combination of all those things. Some priests would even initiate dialogue with us in the pews during the homily and/or during the prayers of the faithful. Sigh. No wonder some people in the pews seem to view Mass as just a social event.

It was a great longing of mine to attend Mass offered by a priest who was reverent and devout, as evidenced by his following the Mass ritual faithfully and performing everything with care. Actually, there was one such priest I knew, but he is no longer available. 😦
So the silver lining here is, that although deprived of receiving Our Lord sacramentally in a Mass, I am still receiving spiritual benefits from the Mass.I read through ALL the prayers (Propers and Ordinaries) of the daily Mass from the Magnificat with all the reverence, care and devotion that I can. (The liturgy is very beautiful and spiritually uplifting with much for meditation; it has been carefully formed for the worship of Almighty God.) At “homily time” I read the meditation in the Magnificat that goes with that day. At Communion time I make a Spiritual Act of Holy Communion. So the silver lining is – that I am not disturbed by the apparent lack of holiness of the celebrant of the Mass – while I still receive benefits from the Mass.

This was posted on Twitter.

I wonder if any of them viewed the televised Mass?

I have obscured their identities, although the tweets are not private and are readily viewed on Twitter.

December 6th is going to be a very important day in the life of the Church. And you can do your part.

Read this article at the National Catholic Register.

Four exorcists have asked that we join in “fasting, prayer and reparation, ‘for the purpose of driving out any diabolic influence within the Church that has been gained as a result of recent events.’”

The article also contains the Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which the exorcists suggest we pray also.

See the article linked to above (and same article here so you don’t have to scroll) for their statement.

If you have an iPhone you can go to the App Store and download the free TheRosary.live app and join others in praying throughout the day. Also, on Facebook the TheRosary.Live page is here.

You can get a group together to pray in your church or at home. Or you can pray by yourself. Just pray! And not just on the 6th of December. Pray always!

On Saturday November 16, 2019, I was enthralled when I viewed the video of the Mass of the Americas celebrated by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.  This Solemn Pontifical High Mass was the first time it was offered in the Extraordinary Form—that is, the Traditional Latin Mass.

The first celebration of the Mass of the Americas was in the Ordinary Form on December 6, 2018, at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone had commissioned the new Mass setting in honor of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (the patroness of the United States) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (the patroness of both Mexico and all the Americas).

I thought I’d gather links here for anyone interested. Of primary interest might be the links to the full Masses of both the Ordinary Form and Extraordinary Form.

Mass of the Americas, Ordinary Form

Mass of the Americas, Extraordinary Form

Articles for some background about the Mass

Article  from the Benedict XVI Institute about how the Mass came about.

Article in New Liturgical Review by Roseanne Sullivan about the Mass with an interview with composer Frank LaRocca.

Videos and photos

Composer Frank LaRocca’s YouTube playlist of the individual pieces from the Ordinary Form Mass of the Americas in San Francisco.

An interview with Archbishop Cordileone ahead of the Mass of the Americas in Washington D.C.

A slideshow of photos from the Washington DC Mass from Aleteia.

The Mass was also offered at a liturgical conference in Tijuana, Mexico, but I could find only one video from that  conference. It was the Aue Maria, composed for the Mass of the Americas in the Nahuatl language from a 1634 translation of the Hail Mary from Spanish into the native Nahuatl (which is still spoken today).

The Aue Maria

Here is the Aue Maria from the three Masses:

The Aue Maria from the Ordinary Form Mass in San Francisco where it “debuted” (if one can say that about something as solemn as a Mass).

Aue Maria from Mass in Tijuana Mexico. (This link goes to Facebook.)

Aue Maria from the Extraordinary Form Mass as the archbishop divests—a traditional part of a Pontifical Mass.

I suppose we could discuss the differences in the presentation of the two Masses but that’s not the main focus of this post. Of course this mantilla wearer is partial to the Extraordinary Form, but the closest parish church to me (one of three parish churches) offers Mass in the Ordinary Form in English. As a parishioner of a parish in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, where every parish has at least one Spanish language Mass, I see the Mass of the Americas as celebrated in San Francisco in December of 2018 as the joyous culmination of an annual procession and the bringing together the Spanish and English speaking people of the archdiocese in honoring our mother as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (the patroness of the United States) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (the patroness of both Mexico and all the Americas.

Please take the time to watch both Masses if you can. Or plan to go to a Mass of the Americas in the future. According to the Benedict XVI Institute, upcoming Masses are slated for:
Tyler, Texas (Dates TBA), Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral

Dallas, Texas (Dates TBA) Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral

More cities are being added monthly.

You can always check out Benedict XVI Institute page for update on where Mass of the Americas will be offered.

The reviews are in

Professor William Mahrt’s review at New Liturgical Review

Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s review on his blog

I have just gotten rid of the default posts that came with the theme so this is just a personal placeholder until I can come up with a real blogpost.