IHM Conference notes: Pope Benedict XVI and the Mass

Yesterday was our last hour long trek to attend the Traditional Latin Mass in North Carolina. After searching on-line for a church home up in DC I found a parish less than 10 miles from our new home that offers a 1962 Mass, CCD, Scout groups, two daily Masses, and Eucharist Adoration. After the past year, I am hopeful of attending a welcoming as well as devout place to worship God. Here are some notes from Father Fessio's recent talk about the Mass:


Homeschooling today is the equivalent of the monastery of the Middle Ages, it restores a connection with the culture of Catholicism in a traditional sense of music, art...

The center of Pope Benedict's life is the Mass

The reform of the reform options are to take the 1962 Mass and reform it to update or take the Novus Ordo Mass and reform by using Latin and most traditional canon available. Visually it would look like to this to impliment what the Council leaders intended:

1962 Mass ---> Vatican II <---Novus Ordo Mass

In the Jewish liturgy there are two separate components, synagogue worship which focused on scripture and temple worship which focused on sacrifice. They are brought together in the Catholic liturgy. The Spirit of Liturgy is a book on the Mass focusing on the renewal of liturgy by Pope Benedict XVI.

Father Fessio then discussed his early friendship with the Pope and their written correspondence through the past 15 years. His own transformation into a lover of the Gregorian Rite (a new name for the TLM) began with saying Mass facing Our Lord. That experience so moved him that he gradually pulled more and more aspects of the 1962 Mass. He shared these impressions with his old friend and found many of the same thoughts reflected in response.

My impression from Father Fessio's talk that we are experiencing a historical moment in the life of the Church and what happens depends a great deal on priest's and bishop's following the successor of Peter. The opportunity for a glorious renewal of Catholic life is upon us and we should take every step possible to support Pope Benedict's effort in this regard.