Concerning concelebration, variety, and fraternity

I have opined that concelebration should be “safe, legal and rare”.  I have, in a jocular mood, posted pics of the sort of concelebration of which I approve. For example:

And here are a couple of guys concelebrating… at different altars.  At this church in Rome this also happens when a scheduled parish Mass is being offered at the main altar.  And nobody freaks out!

17_05_Trin_concelebration

This came to my email today from a reader…

On Friday’s I serve Mass at a side altar while Mass is being said at the high altar. The faithful often see a variety of colors and Masses being said on ferias. [Priests can often say votive Masses, which have different colors for the vestments.]

People who criticize this practice may not realize how beneficial it is for priests in community to say their Masses simultaneously so they can break their fast together afterwards.   [That’s a good point.  And it assumes that priests are fasting before Mass… for more than an hour before Communion as present law stipulates.]

At any rate, today I had the privilege of serving Mass for the feast of St. Philomena.  Common of a virgin martyr with no special collect, it’s rarely said.

St. Philomena has become a patroness of sorts for traditional-minded Catholics, with her relics being discovered at the dawn of Modernity and her feast removed from local calendars a couple years before the Council.

She represents the dichotomy of snobby scholars against popular piety. [Indeed she does.]

We have a number of virgin-martyrs with ancient cults and contemporary accounts.  They’re the most beautiful flowers of the early Church.  Seven are named at the end of the Canon.

There was a time when I was reluctant to embrace her cultus… But St. Philomena, in her obscurity, in her controversy, in her prolific latter-day miraculous activity, convinced me otherwise.

Nice.  Thoughtful.

 

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