Monday Night Requiem Masses at the Oratory

Fr Anton celebrates Mass at Holy Souls Altar

I managed to attend the 6.00pm Monday Low Mass of Requiem at the Oratory last Monday which they are holding throughout the month of November followed by Sung Vespers of the Dead. The numbers were very good: I counted around forty people present. Perhaps in part, this was because the Mass was celebrated just before the opening talk of Jeff Cavins UK Bible Tour, where he talked about how he left the Catholic Church to become a successful protestant pastor before being drawn back to the church by researching the history of early Christianity: as Newman once said, to be steeped in history is to cease to be protestant. In part of his story, he was told by his Bishop he would one day come back to the Catholic Church and was labelled "little Newman". In the end, four things in particular drew him back to the Catholic Church: 1) the Eucharist, which is rarely celebrated or is often sidelined in protestant churches, 2) the veneration of Mary by the early Christians 3) the papacy, which is attested to by the Church Fathers and has a scriptural basis in the Old Testament in Isaiah 22 and 4) the fact the early Christians held onto Tradition as well as Scripture. Just as with Newman, Cavins realised that the Church today that most closely followed what the early Christians believed was the Catholic Church and after making peace with his father, who he had fallen out with after leaving the church, he came home and now spends his time opening up the Bible to Catholics. Unsurprisingly, bad catechesis was part of the reason he left the Catholic Church in the first place.

Part of the problem with the organising Traditional Masses is there is a danger that only the same small coterie of people attend. It is important that we open up the beauty of the Traditional Mass to people who have not had the chance to experience it before, and may have a negative image of it from what they have been told previously. I am sure that some people who came to listen to Jeff Cavins talk came to the Mass beforehand and would never have attended an Extraordinary Form Mass before. What did they make of it? How do we address the questions they would have?

As we come to the end of the liturgical year, I am pondering how I can increase provision of the Extraordinary Form Mass and how I can get more people to experience it in the West Midland area. I have a priest who is willing to give and advent reflection including Mass, probably on a Saturday in December, if there is enough interest. Could people please let me know if they would be interested in such an event by the end of the week so I can look at putting it on. If anyone has an idea for a good location that would also be welcome as our preferred choice was unavailable on the dates required.