Looking at What We Lost
Over the last fifty years, a plethora
of liturgical traditions and ceremonial have undeniably
been lost. Today, many Catholics experience a growing
hunger for the mystery and beauty that they never knew.
To feed this longing, the Roman Catholic
parish of Mater Ecclesiae of Berlin, New Jersey offered
an August 15 Solemn High Mass in honor of the Feast of
the Assumption at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
in nearby Camden.
Father Robert Pasley celebrated the
mass, while a professional choir and orchestra performed
Mozart’s Missa Brevis in C, to a congregation
of almost 600 people.
Members of the American Society for
the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) also
attended and were invited to carry a papal banner and
two small TFP standards in the entrance procession.
“This is one of the most
beautiful masses I have ever attended,” said TFP
attendee Benjamin Heigert. “Just hearing this music
in the original setting for which it was intended, gives
you an idea of the esteem with which our ancestors held
the Faith.”
It is said that giving a starving
man a cracker increases his hunger. Likewise, the mass
curbed the hunger for tradition and beauty so often felt
in modern society, but left many attendees desiring more.
