Great news in Oceanside, CA!

Great news from California came by e-mail:

The pastor of St. Margaret’s, Fr. Cavanna Wallace, announced at today’s morning Mass that, beginning tonight, the 6:00 PM Sunday Mass will be offered in the Extraordinary Form (1962 Missal).

The last few months, he had been offering a Novus Ordo Mass in what he called "a more solemn manner"- ad orientem, [YAY!] gradually adding in more and more Latin.  This past week, he went on a week-long retreat, devoting it to studying and prayer in preparation for the EF Mass.  [This priest gets it!]

At the end of Mass this morning, Father Wallace gave a beautiful explanation of the change.  He admitted that the "older form" takes more concentration and work, for the priest as well as the congregation.  He stressed its emphasis on mystery and reverence, and mentioned that a sort of "cross-fertilization" of these could occur with our ordinary Sunday Mass. [YES YES YES!  This is the "gravitational pull" !]  He told us it helps take the focus away from the personality of the priest, and puts the focus on the Personality of God.  He announced that Communion will be distributed at an altar rail, to be received on the tongue.

If anyone would like to participate in this "historic" occasion, you are welcome to attend tonight’s 6:00 PM Mass.

St. Margaret’s Catholic Church
4300 Oceanside Blvd.
Oceanside CA 92056

Parish website:   http://oceanside4christ.com/

I wish I could be there.  How wonderful for this parish!

WDTPRS gives solemn high "You Get It!" kudos to Fr. Cavanna Wallace! 

How many times have I written that as priests learn the older form, everything will start to change?  Knowledge and use of the older form of Mass will affect how priests celebrate the Novus Ordo. 

This is inevitable.

Will there be vast changes over night?  Of course not.

But Pope Benedict’s Marshall Plan is working. 

Brick by brick, my friends, brick by brick!