We 21st-Century Catholics who love Catholic tradition in the liturgy have two choices: escape or endure. Either we must sacrifice lots of time and money to travel to a reverent, obedient parish, or we must grit our teeth and heroically endure what the local modern churches present to Almighty God in the name of Holy Mass. My husband and I…
I have written posts before about what the Mass is, and the urgent need for Catholics to find and attend reverent Masses. Today I want to point out that nowhere will Roman Rite Catholics find a more appropriate and reverent Mass to attend than a celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (a.k.a. the Extraordinary Form).…
Some people think of so-called Traditionalists as grumpy, nerdy, elitist, conspiracy-theorists who want to imprison other Catholics in the dreaded Middle Ages. The term “Traditionalist” describes those Catholics that value the “smells and bells,” that is, the fullness of Catholicism expressed in teachings and morality, traditions and prayers, and in the celebration of the liturgy. It’s really not scary and weird like people think.
Oh, it’s so good to be home! I’m just back from a wonderful, multi-state trip that involved going to Sunday Mass (Ordinary Form) in a little parish church in western North Carolina. Modern (built recently in the 2000s) on the outside, and modern in many ways on the inside, there were yet many statues and holy images prominently placed…
All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. –St. Francis of Assisi Lately I’ve had to go on a media fast (again)–the darkness out in the world just seems too oppressive at this moment, and the evil on every front seems poised to swallow us all up. But–now is when…
Today I want to urge all of you dear readers: Don’t be one of those people who are settling! Don’t settle for attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at a local parish church, if you see pastors and staff in you parish church ignoring what the GIRM (General Instructions of the Roman Missal) and the documents of Vatican…
Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a peaceful, joyful, reverent Mass, celebrated in English. During the Elevation (and of course, the whole Eucharistic prayer) the priest prayed like this: Thanks be to God, this is actually my experience every Sunday at Mass now. And what a difference it makes to me to go to…
Do you ever emotionally struggle with your parish’s lack of sacredness during the celebration of Holy Mass? Is the celebration of Mass loud and distracting, banal or ugly, casual and secular-flavored where you are? Do you have to grit your teeth each and every Sunday morning, wondering how you’re going to get through the next hour? Over…
I believe that evangelization depends on the liturgy: both for current Catholics and for future Catholics. The Catholics already in the pews are continually being formed by the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: by both the Sacrament Itself and the way the Mass is celebrated. Future Catholics can be attracted into the…
Sometimes it’s tricky to get our fellow Catholics to understand that the music that we are hearing 95% of the time in our parish churches at Mass on Sundays is not the music Holy Mother Church intends. For example, we are called to use the organ predominantly as an instrument for our worship music (and secular instruments such as guitars…
St. Catherine Catholic Culture Center 