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!
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.