Sunday, March 9, 2008

High Mass with Bishop Murphy in Uniondale, NY

Today Fr. James Pereda MDiv. received Papal Honors and was elevated to Monsignor. He has been the celebrant of the Indult Mass for years, serves on the Diocesan Marriage Tribunal and as chaplain to the Nursing Home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Queens. So, it was fitting that he celebrate the Solemn High Mass, the Missa XVII Adventus et Quadragesimae, with ten altar boys, the blended voices from St. Anthony's High School Gregorian Schola, and over three hundred attendees, the most prominent being Bishop Murphy himself.

Patrick of Creative Minority Report was there and has posted on it here.The Hymns which the Schola (which included my daughter Gabbi) were:
Attende Domine
Adoramus Te Christe
Jesu Salvator Mundi
Veni Jesu
Veni Creator Spiritus
A
doro Te Devote
Ave Verum Co
rpus
Ave Maria Caelorum
Lift High the Cross
(Click on the above links to listen to each hymn)
Even though I was chasing Christina through the vestibule, it was Heaven on earth, and I was so proud of the role which homeschoolers had played in all this. The altar boys were homeschooled, so was part of the schola, and most of the young children present. We have been preserving Tradition in our Domestic Churches, quietly, waiting for a day like this to show our bishop our love for the Traditonal Mass and it's Heavenly hymnody. This image of people hiding tradition away in their homes for a time of restoring the Church reminded me of the beautiful children's book, "The Miracle of St. Nicholas" where a Russian village, when the Communists shut down their church of St. Nicholas, hid the treasures of the Church, icon, vestments, altar cloth, candlesticks and the priest himself under floorboards in their simple homes until they were free one Christmas Eve to celebrate their beautiful Mass again, led by a little child too young to remember Mass in a church. Like that Russian village, we too have been waiting 40 years to hear the sweet strains of the High Mass in our village church.

This was Bishop Murhpy's first pastoral visit to the Latin Mass Community, but he assured us it wouldn't be his last. He will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extradordinary Form on June 15, 2008 in St. Agnes Cathedral.

1 comment:

NCTradCatholic said...

If I was one of you lady folk, I'd be weeping tears of joy for Msgr. Pereda. I never imagined this would happen. How deserving he is!

Chris Brennan