Consolations of the Feast

Several things crowd my mind this morning. Chiefly, I’m still processing the Corpus Christi Masses and procession we celebrated at our parish yesterday.

But first, a slight digression.

Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces

On the calendar used in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces. I wrote an article several years back explaining this title of Our Lady, and if you are at all interested in (or outraged by) it, I encourage you to take a gander.

Corpus Christi: Ad Orientem

As MC for our parish, I train and drill the Altar Servers, and I help plan our various liturgies.

The planning around our (now third) annual Corpus Christi procession has been somewhat daunting in the past, but this year we added a new wrinkle.

Our 8:00 Mass was our first Sunday Ad Orientem Mass. Although we had practiced for this, we were all still getting used to how it worked.

And what, I hear you say, is Ad Orientem? It simply means “towards the East”. Many people wrongly call this “with the priest’s back to the people”.

This ancient practice can sometimes cause bewilderment in modern Catholics, as it was almost entirely abandoned during the initial phase of the liturgical reform in the 1970s. Like many traditional things, it is making a bit of a comeback.

Here’s how it’s described in a brochure we put together:

The point of facing east is to emphasize the essential character of the liturgy: that of a procession out of time and into eternity in Heaven. We see and taste this procession in the course of the liturgy.

The celebrant, standing in the person of Christ, leads the way, but we are all moving together, as a community and as the people of God, as part of the same procession that begins at the Introit, continues though the Offertory, and culminates with our reception of Holy Communion.

The practice offers a psychological and spiritual benefit. It permits you the worshiper to contemplate the purely sacramental character of the Mass and focus less on the personality of the celebrant. From the celebrant’s point of view, it permits a more intense focus on the mystery of the sacrifice taking place rather than on the personalities of the worshipers.

Obviously, since we were using the high altar, everything was turned around, and the logistics of getting people and things to their proper places had to be worked out anew.

Thank heavens for my trusty Fortescue!

We moved the credence table and the thurible rack to the right side of the high altar, and suddenly everything fell together. It was actually more efficient than the way we normally do things.

Noon Mass and Procession

We had a record 16 servers at the altar, including two who had their first training just Saturday.

They did great! I was particularly pleased with the way some of the older kids stepped up into leadership and mentoring.

Francine took some photos of the Mass and procession, which I hope to post later.

This was an absolutely wonderful Mass and procession. Profound and moving.

In particular, the Mass, celebrated Ad Orientem with the full complement of servers was dignified and prayerful. For me, at least, I was swept up in the majesty and wonder of the liturgy in a way that doesn’t happen all that often.

It was like being a child again, peering around some corner into the shadow of the wonders of heaven.

It was not the first time I’d been to a Mass celebrated this way. I’ve participated in Low Mass of the Extraordinary Form a handful of times. Several years ago, Father Maurer celebrated in this way for the Third Mass of All Souls.

This was different. I’ve spoken before about moments of consolation, specifically moments where I can feel the weight of the angels and saints pressing in, praying with us in the eternal liturgy.

Usually, this is a fleeting moment, most often when we chant the Sanctus.

Yesterday, particularly at the Noon Mass, it happened repeatedly. I felt as though we in the already crowded church were joined by whole Communion of Saints in the worship of God, in the Eucharistic sacrifice.

I don’t know if it was simply my mind and heart trying to take it all in, or if indeed there were glimpses to be had. Should I attain the promise, I will be sure to ask Saint John about it.

I was very much put in mind of something that Pope Benedict XVI wrote:

Despite all the variations in practice that have taken place far into the second millennium, one thing has remained clear for the whole of Christendom: praying toward the east is a tradition that goes back to the beginning.

Moreover, it is a fundamental expression of the Christian synthesis of cosmos and history, of being rooted in the once-for-all events of salvation history while going out to meet the Lord who is to come again.

(Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy)

Edited to add:

Of course, the moment after I posted this, I saw this on my Facebook feed.

Yes, this. This exactly.