At Our Lady of the Rosary in Greenville the Mass is celebrated in a traditional style with the priest offering the sacrifice of the Mass facing the same direction as the people. The Novus Ordo Mass is enhanced with the Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Paternoster all in Latin and sung to Gregorian chant. The choir [...]
I'm not concerned now, after more than ten years of a messy papacy, to "explain" Pope Francis. I am, however, interested in trying to understand his point of view. I think one of the ways to make sense of his opinions is that he is from Argentina and from an Italian immigrant family to Argentina. He [...]
This week during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Anglicans were not only invited to conduct Choral Evensong in St Peter's Basilica, but the Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated a communion service in a Catholic Church in Rome. While these gestures are diplomatic, they don't mean much more than window dressing for what is now a [...]
The Essenes were a monastic group who observed celibacy, maintained strict religious rules and were intrigued by apocalyptic and Messianic prophecies. Because they were persecuted by the other Jews, the Essenes were scattered across Judea. “Josephus said the Essenes lived in ‘large numbers in every town.’ and had a network to support members when they travelled.” [...]
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on Traditional Catholic Worship One of the marks of traditional Catholic worship is kneeling to receive communion on the tongue. This started to become the norm in our parish in Greenville pretty much on its own. We found that as we emphasized reverence in worship an [...]
Yesterday on 'X' I commented on a discussion about Biblical literalism observing that it was possible to hold to a historical Adam and Eve while acknowledging that the Genesis account was "essentially mythological" This comment that Genesis was "essentially mythological" sparked further comments from folks for whom the word "myth", when associated with the Bible, is [...]
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on traditional Catholic Worship Some folks have noticed that we only have boys serving the altar at Our Lady of the Rosary, Greenville. Why is that? Girl altar servers are permitted. Are we trying to oppress girls? Are we misogynists? Don't we believe in equality of [...]
When I was an Anglican priest my bishop was the Rt Rev Peter Ball--a charismatic character, he was an elf-like self appointed Franciscan style monk. Bishop Peter had a brittle, little way of speaking, a twinkle in his eye and a beguiling smile. He was a delightful preacher and an impressive and inspiring leader. He was [...]
The third in a series on traditional Catholic Worship: At the solemn High Mass on Sundays at Our Lady of the Rosary, Greenville the congregation join the choir in singing or saying certain parts of the Mass in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Every Alleluia and Amen are from the Hebrew. The Kyrie Eleison is in Greek. [...]
I have been asked on social media to write more about married priests. I should say first that I am NOT an advocate or an activist for the church to change her discipline on this matter. I respect my celibate friends too much to do so, and I respect too much my own privileged and unusual [...]