Reform of the Reform: Cistercian Monks Turn Liturgical East

H/T to Fr. Z

I have featured several stories of parishes turning liturgically east - ad orientem during their ordinary form Masses (novus ordo), but this is the first religious order I have been able to share. If someone knows of others, please drop links into the combox and I'll follow up on them, or email me at TeDeumBlog@gmail.com.

I would actually like to make a post or post series on orders and parishes celebrating the new Mass ad orientem.

It is very heart-warming to see some of our monastics - specifically Cistercians doing this.

Some Grotto-goers may recall a monk who comes to Grotto a few times yearly to stay with a parishioner.

Fr. Logan, also a military chaplain, is seen hooded in these Memorial Day pictures (with one pic to the right) ahead of the 9:00am, Mass. When Father is with us he enjoys celebrating ad orientem, as well (I am not sure if he has celebrated the TLM at Grotto yet or not. Grotto Masses are in both ordinary and extraordinary forms and even the ordinary form has been celebrated ad orientem for many years now in both English and Latin. The vernacular Mass features much Latin, as well (the ordinaries and the Eucharistic Prayer).

Here is more from Brother Stephen's blog - Sub Tuum - which has been added to my sidebar under the blogging priests, religious and deacon's section.

In my last entry, I said that there might be liturgical developments on the very near horizon and so it has come to pass. This morning the Conventual Mass for the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God was celebrated ad orientem, which will now be the normative position for saying Mass at Our Lady of Spring Bank. (The Mass was solemn Latin in the ordinary form using the Cistercian Graduale.)

There are still many kinks and questions to address pertaining to the rank of feasts, the customs of the ordinary form v. Cistercian usage, the size of our community, and the layout of our oratory. The draft customary will certainly see much fleshing-out and many amendments over the coming months, but Fr. Prior thought that today was the appropriate day to begin to face God together, it being the first of the year and a solemnity of Mary.

I'm sure to have more to say later on this topic as we begin to sand off the rough edges, but I wanted to get the news up since I knew it would be of particular interest to some of you and, perhaps, to a somewhat broader audience, since I believe that this makes us the first house in our order to return to ad orientem celebration. (There are a few more photos here.)

Deo gratias!

See more photos in the original blogpost of Br. Stephen

I go back to something that bears repeating....

Seek not the face of the priest in the Mass,
but the Face of Almighty God!

For those men interested in a more traditional, monastic life - not necessarily "tridentine", you might want to consider the Spring Bank Abbey in Wisconsin, in your discernment.

I might point out, as well, that we should support these religious orders with purchases when we can. Go visit these Cistercians at Laser Monks, as well.

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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Out of the mouths of.....teens: Ad Orientem Celebrated Mass

There was a delightful post over at the blog of Fr. Dwight Longenecker in Greenville, South Carolina. He is on staff at St. Mary's where priests recently began celebrating ad orientem, the way the ordinary form or Novus Ordo is celebrated at Grotto. He is also a chaplain at St. Joseph's Catholic school, where Father recounts a recent dialogue (emphases mine in bold with the boy's quotes in red and Father's in blue)

High Schoolers Facing East

Six high school boys stayed after Thursday's daily Mass at St Joseph's Catholic School:

"Father, why didn't you celebrate Mass facing East today?"

"I'm doing so on two days of the week, and on the other two the usual way. Do you like the Mass when I celebrate facing East?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It feels more holy. It's older right? But you're not really facing East here."

"There's something called 'liturgical East.' It's when the priest faces what used to be the East 'cause all the churches were built to face the rising sun, which was a symbol of the resurrection and also because Jesus would return to Jerusalem, which was in the East."

"Like Muslims facing Mecca."

"Sort of, but I'm not going to start wearing a turban"

"You could wear your biretta more often."

"Shall I?"

"I like Mass when you face East because it feels like you are offering the Mass for us more."

"I just like stuff that's more traditional."

"I think it feels more, well, manly. Do you know what I mean. Is that dumb?"

"That's interesting. No, I don't think it's dumb, but I have to think about why it might be true."

"I think it's good because I was thinking more about God and not you, and when you elevated the host it was like Jesus floating there. It was more mysterious. It was cool."

"Would you like me to continue saying Mass facing with you to the Lord?"

"Yes please."

"You don't feel slighted because I have turned my back to you? You sure I haven't hurt your feelings?"

Laughter all around. "You're not that good looking anyway Father."

"OK, why don't you all go to lunch now?"

When the one boy said that it felt like it was more about God than the priest when he faced liturgical east, it reminded me of my first experience. As I have so often recounted it: "I shifted in my pew as if to seek the face of the priest, only to realize a short time later, it is the face of God I should be seeking in the Mass".

Now comes a poem from Father's blog on the subject...

A Student’s Plea

No, no, Father, please don’t toss the mike
like a DJ when you preach. Please don’t be cool.
Please don’t ride a Harley motorbike
when you come to school.

Don’t wear red cowboy boots for Pentecost,
and tell dumb jokes to be our pal. Please don’t ‘high five’,
say, “Sweet!” “Awwsome!” “You suck!” “You’re toast!”
or teach us how to jive.

Don’t sing along to the latest pop band;
you don’t need to be hip and up to date,
or come to our parties with a drink in your hand,
trying to relate.

Play it straight. Say the black and do the red.
Refrain from politics and rainbow pins.
Pray for all of us, the living and the dead,
and listen to our sins.

We want you to keep the faith, you see,
but keep it as it was. We want it old.
We want it to be waiting there when we
come in from the cold.

We want you to be our Father, not our mate.
We want a solid rock; so when we roam,
we know you'll be there, waiting at the gate,
to welcome us home.

You can always get to Fr. Longenecker's blog, "Standing on my Head", by scrolling down to my sidebar section for blogging priests, religious, and deacons.



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S.C. Parish in it's "eastward" turn - Ad Orientem!

If you are interested in reading about priests who are turning their parishes much in the way Grotto did many years ago, you will be delighted to follow the lenten transition of St. Mary's Catholic parish in Greenville, South Carolina to where the priest will be facing ad orientem, or as he says, "ad Deum", sometime between Easter and Pentecost.

Brave and courageous priests are taking the time to explain to the people, as Fr. Jay Scott Newman does throughout his lenten bulletin columns, the "why", and then simply does it!

I pray the people there will learn a simple lesson that God graced me with very shortly after arriving at Assumption Grotto before I ever really knew anyone there and could be influenced.

My first interior response was, "You've got to be kidding me - he's got his back to us!"

Next, I shifted in my pew as if to seek the face of the priest, only to realize that it is the face of God I should be seeking in the Mass.

In a nutshell, that is what the ad orientem posture enables. I'll add further that , at least at Grotto, the priest is deep in meditation before he ever heads up the aisle in procession. Hence, he is not greeting people on his way up, but through his example shows us where we should be too.

This folks, is a God-centered Mass!

Deo Gratias!


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Pope Benedict to celebrate Mass using ad orientem posture

Many of you will read this too late, but at 4:00am EST, you can watch Pope Benedict celebrate a Novus Ordo Mass using the ad orientem posture. Rocco Palmo posts as follows. Note that I did not say a Tridentine.

In another significant liturgical turn at the very top, B16 will celebrate tomorrow's annual Sistine Chapel Mass for the Baptism of the Lord in the ad orientem stance -- that is, facing away from the congregation and toward the cross that stands at the chapel's back wall.

In an explanatory note from the Office for Papal Liturgical Celebrations picked up by the Italian wires, the papal MC Msgr Guido Marini announced that the Mass, to be conducted according to the post-Conciliar "Ordinary Use" approved by Paul VI, would employ the main altar of the Sistina. As a result, the note said, "at certain moments the Pope will have his shoulders [back] to the faithful and his gaze toward the Cross."

As the chapel's original altar is not freestanding, versus popolorum celebrations there have required the construction of a temporary altar and platform. While John Paul II celebrated his first Mass after his 1978 election using the permanent altar and no freestanding altar exists in the Pope's private chapel, a public papal liturgy has not been celebrated using the "common orientation" in recent memory.

"The celebration at the old altar is being restored so as not to alter the beauty and harmony of this architectural jewel," the note said, "preserving its structure from the celebratory point of view and using an option contemplated by the liturgical norms." The change of orientation, Marini's statement said, would seek to enhance "the attitude and disposition of the whole assembly."

The annual liturgy features the baptism of several infants by the pontiff. The contemporary baptismal font designed by Lello Scorzelli -- also the designer of the pastorali, the cross-topped liturgical staffs used by Paul VI and his successors -- will likewise be maintained.

Deo Gratias!


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