Low Mass for the Epiphany

Since we moved to the depths of the country a few years ago, we rarely get to a Low Mass. There is a Missa Cantata once a month which we go to, as it's only an hour away, but other than that we go to our local (NO) Parish.

So it was a real treat to go to a Low Mass. I was struck once more by the whole no-nonsense approach You turn up. A few others turn up. The priest turns up. You all pray, adore, offer the sacrifice, receive Our Lord, give thanks... What more could be necessary?

The kids like it too - the elder ones report that it is easier to pray at a Low Mass than a Missa Cantata (when we are all in the Schola), and also easier than in the NO Mass, where there is so much hubbub.

It does strike me as an irony (and a tragic one at that) that the NO Mass should have been introduced when it was.

We finally have the technology to make the production of Latin - English (and Latin - Polish, Latin - Spanish and so on) leaflets almost effortless and we have more multi-ethnic congregations than ever before; so we abandon a universal language.

We live in a culture where noise, comment and music bombard us at all times; so we abandon sacred silence.

We live at a time of decreasing respect even for other human beings; so we abandon the notions of sacred space and sacred gestures.

We live in a world that is determined to attack the notion that 'male and female he created them,' so we erode all the distinctively male roles in the liturgy.

But we have it on good authority that the gates of hell shall never prevail...

And it was great to be allowed to celebrate the Epiphany on the traditional day.