Traditional Latin Mass in Maryland

Fr. Rob Johansen , in response to an interesting post by Amy Wellborn , writes a very thoughtful commentary on issues relating to the TLM on his blog, Thrown Back . Fr. speaks about a photo of a priest celebrating Mass " ad orientem ," in which Amy asked for respondents to comment. He writes, in part: Amy asked people for their reactions to the photo, and the reactions were themselves thought-provoking and revealing. What they seem to reveal is something I have noticed before in many of the negative reactions to Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio and to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, otherwise known as the " Tridentine " rite. What is apparent to me is that many of the objections are ideological rather than theological or spiritual. Here are a list of some of the words and phrases used in the negative reactions to the photo, or other objections and complaints about Summorum Pontificum and/or the Extraordinary Form that have appeared in the media since la

Shawn Tribe of the New Liturgical Movement has a beautiful story complete with some astonishing photos . Here is a snippet of his post which is a must see : An important event has occurred in the life of the Roman Church. More significant even than the Pope's re-orientation of the liturgy by means of the arrangement of the versus populum altar -- though going hand in hand with that important development -- the Pope has now given an important public witness and example of the acceptability of the celebration of the sacred liturgy "ad orientem" -- that is, with the priest, in this case the Pope himself, and the faithful directed together in a common sacred direction, turned towards the Lord, towards the symbolic "East" of the liturgy. This is the first such public manifestation (as compared to this practice in the Pope's private chapel) for quite some time and that it has occurred within the Vatican itself is also significant. The liturgy celebrated is tha